– in the Scottish Parliament at on 3 September 2020.
Colin Smyth
Labour
6. To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of the cost of the Covid-19 response and recovery measures for local government on the delivery of other council services. (S5O-04538)
Kevin Stewart
Scottish National Party
The Scottish Government recognises the significant financial impact and the challenging operating environment that we all face, and we will continue to consider every option to ensure that local authorities have the financial support and flexibility to support communities across Scotland with the services that they expect and deserve at this time.
The Government took decisive action to allocate an additional £330 million of funding, and, in recognition of local authorities’ additional cost pressures and lost income, the Government has also brought forward £455 million of grant payments to help alleviate local authorities’ potential cash-flow problems. Discussions are on-going with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities on further financial support and flexibility.
Working in partnership with COSLA, the Scottish Government will continue to press the United Kingdom Government for additional financial support and fiscal flexibilities, for both the Scottish Government and local authorities, and would welcome any support that the Parliament can provide in that respect.
Colin Smyth
Labour
We know that councils face a shortfall between what they have had to spend on their efforts to support communities in the fight against Covid-19 and the extra resources that they have received from Government. A report by Dumfries and Galloway Council last month showed that even excluding the cost of the return to schools, the local shortfall was £2.5 million and rising. Does the Minister accept that unless additional resources are allocated to councils, there will be cuts to existing services over and above the cuts that we already know will be required to balance the books?
Kevin Stewart
Scottish National Party
I will not go over all of what the Cabinet secretary covered in previous answers about additional money. Dumfries and Galloway Council has been allocated an additional £7.6 million to deal with the challenges of Covid-19 and beyond that, it will receive a fair share of the further £75 million that is currently undistributed but will—[
Inaudible
.]—agreement on the distribution methodology with COSLA. As the cabinet secretary pointed out, we are continuing to look at all the other flexibilities that come into play and I am more than happy to continue dialogue with Mr Smyth.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
