Part of Finance and Local Government – in the Scottish Parliament at on 3 September 2025.
Kenneth Gibson
Scottish National Party
I thank the Minister for that comprehensive reply. Students are the largest cohort of economically inactive people in Scotland, where we have four-year degrees.
Of those people seeking work in Scotland, 72,000 received employability support from April 2022 to September 2024. Will the minister advise which programmes were most successful in returning people to work, what plans there are to roll out such programmes across the country, and the anticipated average annual boost to both the individual’s and the nation’s finances of each person who moves out of economic inactivity?
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.
