– in the Scottish Parliament at on 23 February 2023.
Paul McLennan
Scottish National Party
6. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its “Hydrogen Action Plan”, including regarding the role that local authorities can play in defining demand. (S6O-01929)
Michael Matheson
Scottish National Party
In December 2022, we published our finalised “Hydrogen Action Plan”, which set out the actions that it will be necessary to take over the course of this parliamentary session to support the development of the hydrogen economy in Scotland. The development of a domestic hydrogen sector and hydrogen production for export, supported by a strong supply chain, will play an important role in supporting a just transition to net zero by 2045, and it also presents significant long-term economic opportunities. We continue to work with our agency partners and local authorities to deliver those actions.
Paul McLennan
Scottish National Party
What role will the support agencies that the Cabinet secretary referenced, such as Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Scottish Enterprise, and South of Scotland Enterprise, together with our universities sector, play alongside local authorities in developing supply chain capacity?
Michael Matheson
Scottish National Party
Our enterprise agencies and our universities sector will play an important part in building and supporting our hydrogen supply chain and capacity within that sector. We work collaboratively to bring together all parts of the sector—public, private and academic—to support the development of the hydrogen economy. Our agencies can provide grants, loans and advice to organisations that seek to develop proposals for hydrogen projects. Our enterprise agencies work with our universities to progress key aspects of research that are critical to supporting the development of such projects.
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.
