Part of Urgent Question – in the Scottish Parliament at 4:43 pm on 2 October 2025.
Stephen Kerr
Conservative
4:43,
2 October 2025
If the Minister, who I like—and who, by the way, has been badly served by whoever wrote his answers—has admiration for Colleges Scotland, why is the Government cutting college funding? That is not according to the Conservatives but according to Audit Scotland, whose honesty I greatly admire for bringing to light these facts. Audit Scotland is warning us that colleges are being forced to prioritise cheaper courses over costlier courses, which are the ones that are in demand by employers. Apprenticeship demand is going unmet.
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 Conservatives are a centre-right political party in the UK, founded in the 1830s. They are also known as the Tory party.
With a lower-case ‘c’, ‘conservative’ is an adjective which implies a dislike of change, and a preference for traditional values.
