Part of Finance and Local Government – in the Scottish Parliament at on 3 September 2025.
Ivan McKee
Scottish National Party
First, the member is correct to say that there will be a statement by the First Minister later this afternoon. Clearly, members will have to wait and see what it contains, but—as Patrick Harvie identified—it will touch on some of those issues.
With regard to the principle, it is important to recognise that, in this area, there is a mixture of devolved and reserved competence and that, in order to have an effective policy, we need to be able to unpick that and understand the extent of devolved competence so that we can legislate accordingly. In principle, however, I do not disagree with Patrick Harvie’s comments.
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.
