General Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament at on 4 December 2025.
Jackie Dunbar
Scottish National Party
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the UK Government budget regarding how it affects the North East Scotland region. (S6O-05249)
Shona Robison
Scottish National Party
The UK budget has failed to deliver for Scotland and will have detrimental effects for the North East Scotland region.
We are deeply disappointed and concerned that the UK Government has failed to reform the energy profits levy, ignoring our warnings and those from industry. That places jobs, investment and the energy transition at risk.
Distilleries in the north-east are crucial to the whisky industry, which contributes more than £5 billion in exports and supports more than 20,000 jobs. The disparity in alcohol duty has been ignored again, with the increase in rates resulting in an 18 per cent rise in just three years.
Jackie Dunbar
Scottish National Party
Days after the budget was published, Harbour Energy announced the loss of another 100 jobs in Aberdeen. The energy profits levy is taxing a windfall that no longer exists and is devastating Aberdeen’s economy. What is the Scottish Government doing to encourage the UK Government to rethink the EPL?
Shona Robison
Scottish National Party
I share Jackie Dunbar’s concerns about the job losses that were announced at Harbour Energy in Aberdeen and about the approach that was taken to the reserved North Sea fiscal regime in the UK budget. The Chancellor of the exchequer has not heeded the clear warnings from across the energy industry on the necessity of making the transition from the energy profits levy to a fairer and more stable regime as soon as possible. The impacts are being felt acutely in the north-east. They include the further job losses that Jackie Dunbar highlighted. Those impacts extend across the energy sector, including in relation to renewables and supply chains. We will, of course, continue to relay those concerns to the UK Government in the strongest possible terms.
Douglas Lumsden
Conservative
The UK budget was a hammer blow to the north-east of Scotland and the oil and gas industry. However, it is now nearly three years since the Scottish Government announced its presumption against oil and gas developments. In that time, it has refused to support Rosebank, Cambo and Jackdaw. The Scottish National Party Government is complicit in thousands of jobs being lost in the north-east, so will it commit to publishing its energy strategy and just transition plan before the end of the year and finally show some support to our oil and gas workers?
Shona Robison
Scottish National Party
We did not support the extension, under the previous Tory UK Government, of the energy profits levy until 2029, nor—[Interruption.]
Alison Johnstone
Green
Let us hear the Cabinet secretary.
Shona Robison
Scottish National Party
I am not sure that members quite heard that, Presiding Officer. Let me say it again: we did not support either the extension of the levy to 2029 under the previous Tory UK Government or the further extension to 2030 and the increase in rate that were confirmed in last year’s UK autumn budget. That is having a devastating effect on the sector in North East Scotland and in the rest of Scotland. The levy needs to be scrapped, and it needs to be scrapped now.
Alison Johnstone
Green
That concludes general Question Time.
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.
The chancellor of the exchequer is the government's chief financial minister and as such is responsible for raising government revenue through taxation or borrowing and for controlling overall government spending.
The chancellor's plans for the economy are delivered to the House of Commons every year in the Budget speech.
The chancellor is the most senior figure at the Treasury, even though the prime minister holds an additional title of 'First Lord of the Treasury'. He normally resides at Number 11 Downing Street.
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.
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.
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.
