Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 20 April 2022.
Richard Lochhead
Scottish National Party
My colleague, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, regularly meets the trade association bodies for the construction sector, as do other ministers. We also meet the training providers as well as those in the further and higher education sector to discuss some of the challenges facing the construction sector in Scotland. Like many other sectors here, it has had to cope with the fallout from Brexit as well as the pandemic. I assure the member, therefore, that right across Government, we are considering how to help not just the construction sector but many of our other sectors with recruitment and some of the labour challenges that they face.
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.
