First Minister’s Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament at on 23 May 2024.
Lorna Slater
Green
The Scottish Greens welcomed the First Minister’s commitment yesterday to prioritise the climate emergency. All the evidence is clear: preventing climate breakdown means leaving new oil and gas in the ground. As part of the Scottish Government, the Scottish Greens worked hard to ensure that the draft energy strategy contained a landmark presumption against new oil and gas exploration, which is consistent with the science. That position has been thrown into doubt this week by the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy, who branded the proposals for no new oil and gas exploration during a climate emergency as “too extreme”. When will the Scottish Government publish the now long-overdue final energy strategy? Will the First Minister commit to ensuring that the Parliament will have time to scrutinise it before summer recess? Will it still contain the presumption against new oil and gas that was consulted on?
John Swinney
Scottish National Party
The issues that Lorna Slater has raised have been the subject of consultation. As I set out yesterday, the Government will bring forward the energy strategy. Obviously, because of the election rules, we are now in a slightly different position as to what the Government can bring to the Parliament; we have to be mindful of the propriety advice that we get from the permanent Secretary about the issues that we can bring to the Parliament in an election period.
However, I can say that the Government’s focus is on meeting the country’s energy security needs, on reducing emissions in line with climate commitments, and on delivering affordable energy supplies. In doing so, it will focus on ensuring that a just transition for the oil and gas workforce is secured to a net zero future as the resources in the North Sea decline.
Lorna Slater
Green
New oil and gas exploration will not guarantee us energy security. There is no security for home owners when the cost of heating their home is still tied to volatile gas markets. There is no security for oil and gas workers who are trapped in a declining industry, and there is no security for communities that need a just transition instead of arguments about how many drops of oil we can still squeeze out. Is it not clear that, with Labour dumping its green investment plans and pledging to keep every Tory oil and gas licence in place, and the Scottish National Party back to its old habit of trying to face both ways to the fossil fuel industry, it is only the Scottish Greens that have a clear and urgent response to the climate emergency?
John Swinney
Scottish National Party
In the short period in which I have been the First Minister, the Government has announced two very significant investments—one at Ardersier and the other at Nigg—which are essential to the renewable energy industry in Scotland and the development of the offshore wind sector. Those are enormous investments that signal the Government’s commitment.
Yesterday, in my statement of priorities to the Parliament, I made the point that, during the lifetime of this Government, Scotland has developed a position of significant advance on electricity generation from renewable energy. When we came to office, around 20 per cent of Scotland’s electricity consumption came from renewable sources, but that has now reached 113 per cent. That is a sizeable transformation in decarbonisation of electricity, which should be welcomed. The Government will build on that through the support that we are putting in place for the renewable energy sector in Scotland.
Question Time is an opportunity for MPs and Members of the House of Lords to ask Government Ministers questions. These questions are asked in the Chamber itself and are known as Oral Questions. Members may also put down Written Questions. In the House of Commons, Question Time takes place for an hour on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays after Prayers. The different Government Departments answer questions according to a rota and the questions asked must relate to the responsibilities of the Government Department concerned. In the House of Lords up to four questions may be asked of the Government at the beginning of each day's business. They are known as 'starred questions' because they are marked with a star on the Order Paper. Questions may also be asked at the end of each day's business and these may include a short debate. They are known as 'unstarred questions' and are less frequent. Questions in both Houses must be written down in advance and put on the agenda and both Houses have methods for selecting the questions that will be asked. Further information can be obtained from factsheet P1 at the UK Parliament site.
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.
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.
A Permanent Secretary is a top civil servant- there is a permanent secretary in each Office/Dept./Ministry Permanent Secretaries are always Knights, (I.E. "Sir" or "Dame"). BBC Sitcom "Yes Minster" portrays Sir Humprey Appelby as a Permanent Secretary, steretypically spouting lots of red tape and bureacracy.
The political party system in the English-speaking world evolved in the 17th century, during the fight over the ascension of James the Second to the Throne. James was a Catholic and a Stuart. Those who argued for Parliamentary supremacy were called Whigs, after a Scottish word whiggamore, meaning "horse-driver," applied to Protestant rebels. It was meant as an insult.
They were opposed by Tories, from the Irish word toraidhe (literally, "pursuer," but commonly applied to highwaymen and cow thieves). It was used — obviously derisively — to refer to those who supported the Crown.
By the mid 1700s, the words Tory and Whig were commonly used to describe two political groupings. Tories supported the Church of England, the Crown, and the country gentry, while Whigs supported the rights of religious dissent and the rising industrial bourgeoisie. In the 19th century, Whigs became Liberals; Tories became Conservatives.
