Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 28 February 2023.
Liam Kerr
Conservative
I thank the Cabinet secretary for completely evading the question that I asked.
I have a freedom of information response that says that the cabinet secretary presented that statistic as a fact to foreign politicians on 4 October. As foreign politicians—and the people of Scotland, by his columns on 17 and 18 October—were potentially misled by the cabinet secretary, what action has he taken to ensure that foreign politicians know what the truth is, to ensure that he has tracked down and corrected anyone else to whom he has repeated the misleading statistic, and to establish which of his other colleagues have similarly repeated the misleading statistic so that they too can ensure that they were giving out accurate information?
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.
