Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 31 October 2023.
John Swinney
Scottish National Party
I welcome the direct, personal involvement of the Minister for Transport on this significant Constituency issue for me, which has resulted in huge economic and social damage to the people whom I have the privilege to represent.
During my years in this Parliament, I have had many calls with many leaders of corporate organisations. I have never had one quite so disengaged as with the chief executive of SGN on Friday. Will the minister take every opportunity to impress on SGN the importance of understanding that, although there may be legitimacy for the repair that it has to undertake, that cannot be at the expense of everybody else who is using the A9, and particularly the communities that I represent?
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
In a general election, each Constituency chooses an MP to represent them. MPs have a responsibility to represnt the views of the Constituency in the House of Commons. There are 650 Constituencies, and thus 650 MPs. A citizen of a Constituency is known as a Constituent
