– in the Scottish Parliament at on 1 October 2020.
Shona Robison
Scottish National Party
2. To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to Dundee to assist in the implementation of the city’s climate action plan. (S5O-04650)
Roseanna Cunningham
Scottish National Party
I welcome Dundee’s climate action plan, which places climate change at the heart of the city’s regeneration. The plan has ambitious targets, a citywide partnership approach and strong links to national policy; it supports key low-carbon technologies and climate resilience.
The Scottish Government and its agencies are working with partners in Dundee. In particular, we have committed up to £150 million over 10 years to the wider Tay cities region deal, which includes the ambition to create a step change to a low-carbon, regional economy and establish the Tay cities region as a leader for eco-innovation. To date, we have also provided over £6 million of funding to Dundee City Council to decarbonise its vehicle fleet, co-funded the development of the low-carbon district energy hub at Caird park regional performance centre for sport, and provided support to community circular economy initiatives in Dundee.
Shona Robison
Scottish National Party
The Cabinet secretary may be aware of Dundee’s new embark Dundee e-bike sharing scheme, which is set to launch this weekend, making Dundee the largest e-bike provider in the country. What plans does the Government have to further encourage active travel in city centres and, in particular, to improve air quality in known city centre hotspots?
Roseanna Cunningham
Scottish National Party
The budget for 2020-21 has increased to £100.5 million to support the building of large-scale active travel infrastructure and behavioural change. We have invested nearly £39 million in temporary infrastructure to help local authorities support physical distancing and to encourage walking, wheeling and cycling during the Covid-19 outbreak.
We remain absolutely committed to tackling air pollution. The Scottish Government awarded over £500,000 to Dundee in 2019-20 to develop a low-emission zone and related public transport measures. I welcome the announcement that I read today about the new Edinburgh to Dundee electric bus service, which will start next week.
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.
