Scotland

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Scotland

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The Deputy First Minister of Scotland is the deputy to the First Minister of Scotland.

The post is not recognised in statute (in comparison with the post of First Minister which is established by the Scotland Act 1998), and its holder is simply an ordinary member of the Scottish Executive. The post has none-the-less existed since the establishment of the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Executive in 1999.

The Additional Member System used to elect Members of the Scottish Parliament makes it difficult for a single party to have an absolute majority. Between 1999 and 2007, the Scottish Executive was formed by a Labour and Liberal Democrat coalition. The First Minister was appointed from the majority coalition partner (Labour) and the Deputy First Minister from the minority partner (Liberal Democrats). Although the SNP formed a single party minority administration following the 2007 election, the post was not abolished despite there being no need to recognise the status of a second party leader, instead being given to the SNP Depute Leader Nicola Sturgeon MSP. (SNP).^[1]

During the illness of the first First Minister, Donald Dewar, the Deputy First Minister took over the running of the Executive as Acting First Minister.

The spelling used in the titles of all Deputy First Ministers so far has not been in line with traditional Scottish usage, which uses the form "Depute" in preference to "Deputy".

List of Deputy First Ministers

v • d • e      Scottish Cabinet Alex Salmond (First Minister) · Nicola Sturgeon (Deputy First Minister and Health and Wellbeing) · John Swinney (Finance and Sustainable Growth) · Fiona Hyslop (Education and Lifelong Learning) · Kenny MacAskill (Justice) · Richard Lochhead (Rural Affairs and the Environment)

v • d • e Deputy First Ministers of Scotland Jim Wallace · Nicol Stephen · Nicola Sturgeon

References

1. ^ "Salmond announces his new cabinet". BBC News (2007-05-16). Retrieved on 2007-05-16.