Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 10 March 2021.
Lewis Macdonald
Labour
I am sure that those hopes will be shared by all members across the chamber, as they will be by all who are involved in tourism and hospitality in Scotland.
Although people understand the Government’s difficulty in setting any dates at the moment, they are keen to know which criteria will have to be met before that can happen. Does the Cabinet secretary agree that it would be valuable to identify the triggers that will lead to tourism businesses being given the green light to reopen, for the sake of both their own forward planning and that of their customers?
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.
