Scottish News RECAP: John Swinney to face his first First Minister's Questions

Hello and welcome to The Scotsman’s live blog!

I’m Rachel Amery and I’m The Scotsman’s political correspondent, and I am in the Scottish Parliament getting ready for another busy day in politics.

John Swinney faces his first First Minister’s Questions today - we will bring you all the latest as we have it.

Late last night John Swinney unveiled his full cabinet - before we get started today, let’s take a look at it.

First Minister John Swinney

Deputy first minister, Economy and Gàidhlig Secretary Kate Forbes

Finance Secretary Shona Robison

Health Secretary Neil Gray

Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth

Net Zero and Energy Secretary Màiri McAllan

Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop

Rural Affairs and Islands Secretary Mairi Gougeon

Constitution, External Affairs and Culture Secretary Angus Robertson

Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville

Justice Secretary Angela Constance

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Parliamentary Business Minister Jamie Hepburn

Business Minister Richard Lochhead

Employment and Investment Minister Tom Arthur

Public Finance Minister Ivan McKee

Children, Young People and The Promise Minister Natalie Don

Higher and Further Education Minister / Veterans Minister Graeme Dey

Victims and Community Safety Minister Siobhian Brown

Climate Action Minister Gillian Martin

Agriculture and Connectivity Minister Jim Fairlie

Public Health and Women’s Health Minister Jenni Minto

Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport Minister Maree Todd

Drugs and Alcohol Policy Minister Christina McKelvie

Equalities Minister Kaukab Stewart

Housing Minister Paul McLennan

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Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC

Solicitor General Ruth Charteris KC

John Swinney’s new cabinet is not exactly new - almost everyone has kept the job they had under Humza Yousaf.

At the senior cabinet level, the only big change has been bringing Kate Forbes in.

This was expected, as Mr Swinney promised her a “significant role” in exchange for her not running against him to be SNP leader. 

She has been made deputy first minister, and the economy brief has been moved across from Màiri McAllan to Ms Forbes.

But other than that it’s exactly the same.

It’s not quite as familiar when we go down to the junior minister positions, but still not a whole lot of change.

The two big changes to note - Ivan McKee is in, and the independence minister is out.

Mr McKee was a strong backer of Ms Forbes’s leadership campaign last year, and has been a supporter of hers on the backbenches ever since.

Perhaps bringing him in as public finance minister is another attempt to bring the party together again.

And Humza Yousaf created a brand new ministerial position and made Jamie Hepburn the independence minister, responsible for publishing various independence papers.

However this role has been scrapped completely, with Mr Hepburn becoming parliamentary business minister instead.

George Adam, Emma Roddick and Joe Fitzpatrick are all out - but that’s really all there is to say.

Our Education Correspondent Calum Ross has been taking a look at the in-tray for John Swinney.

From education to health and transport, and even arts and culture, there is plenty to be keeping the new First Minister and his cabinet busy.

Read more: John Swinney SNP Cabinet: The challenging in-tray on education, health, transport, and arts and culture

So which government jobs have been scrapped altogether?

While many of the faces in John Swinney’s government are the same, they are not all with the same job titles.

The biggest cut certainly has to be axing the independence minister.

But here are the other ministerial positions which now no longer exist after yesterday’s reshuffle and the ending of the Bute House Agreement:

Independence minister

Local government, empowerment and planning minister

Community wealth and public finance minister (becomes public finance minister)

Small business, innovation, tourism and trade minister (becomes business minister)

Energy, just transition and fair work minister 

Zero carbon buildings, active travel and tenants’ rights minister

Green skills, circular economy and biodiversity minister

Culture, Europe and international development minister

Equalities, migration and refugees minister

We’ve been getting a smattering of reaction through on how people are feeling about the new cabinet.

One that people are not necessarily best pleased with is the loss of a minister dedicated to biodiversity. 

This was something Green co-leader Lorna Slater was in charge of until the end of the Bute House Agreement, and it was then subsumed into Màiri McAllan’s portfolio of economy, net zero and energy.

Now there is no dedicated biodiversity minister - however Gillian Martin has become the climate action minister.

Steve Micklewright, convener of the Scottish Rewilding Alliance, and chief executive of Trees for Life, said: “Scotland has taken one step forwards and one step backwards for nature and climate, with the welcome minister for climate action and the deeply disappointing loss of any minister for biodiversity.

“We urge the First Minister to appoint a dedicated biodiversity minister to continue vital work for the large-scale nature recovery, and are calling for a meeting with him to discuss this.

“Thousands of people across Scotland have so far signed the rewilding nation charter calling on the Scottish Government to declare Scotland a rewilding nation - because they know the climate and nature emergencies have to be tackled together, and that rewilding creates a cascade of benefits including better health, new jobs, food security, and healthy rivers and seas.

“Slowing down progress to address Scotland’s catastrophic decline in biodiversity - including updating our quarter-of-a-century old national parks legislation, bolstering Scotland’s beaver population, and proposals on marine nature restoration - would be an own goal that the country can’t afford.”

The campaign group Scotland in Union says John Swinney must now commit to publishing no more independence papers, after axing the role of independence minister.

Over the last year, the independence minister’s main job has been to publish various independence papers, setting out a blueprint for how Scotland might look after leaving the UK.

However there has been criticism over how much all of this is costing taxpayers.

Scotland in Union now says Mr Swinney needs to go further and redeploy the civil servants who were previously working on these papers.

Pamela Nash, chief executive of Scotland In Union, said: “The Scottish Government has finally seen sense and abolished this wasteful and costly role - but John Swinney should go further.

“Now the independence minister jersey has been retired, the First Minister should commit to publishing no more papers on separation, and promise to redeploy the civil servant team to more important matters.

“For far too long this SNP government has blown taxpayers’ cash on its constitutional obsessions.

“It’s time for the people’s priorities, not the SNP’s.”

Angus B MacNeil MP has already written to First Minister John Swinney, looking for a guarantee that he won’t introduce highly-protected marine areas.

Highly-protected marine areas were dropped last year - had they been introduced, it would have banned fishing in around 10 per cent of Scottish waters.

The Scottish Fishermen’s Federation say they are still concerned highly-protected marine areas could still be introduced under a different guise, as the government is still committed to enhanced marine protection.

Mr MacNeil, who was suspended from the SNP last year and decided to continue on as an independent MP after his suspension was up, has written to the new First Minister saying the proposals cannot resurface.

The Na h-Eileanan an Iar MP said: “The voice of islanders was heard loud and clear in opposition to highly-protected marine areas last year and I have stressed this week to the new First Minister that any attempt to revive these proposals would be damaging once again to the Scottish Government.

“I’m looking for categorical confirmation that this will not happen.”

First minister’s questions gets underway at midday.

Before John Swinney takes to the frontbench, let’s take a look at what questions we are expecting today.

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar and Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie are all due to ask opposition questions.

Beyond that, there will be questions on women in enterprise from Michelle Thomson MSP, residential rehabilitation beds from Jamie Greene MSP, the Horizon Post Office scandal from Pauline McNeill MSP, and suicide rates amongst young men from Alexander Stewart MSP.

Who is on the frontbench?

Of course, John Swinney as the new First Minister is heading up the SNP benches - but who else is joining him on the front row?

I can see the new Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes, Constitution, External Affairs and Culture Secretary Angus Robertson, Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop, Justice Secretary Angela Constance, Finance Secretary Shona Robison, and Health Secretary Neil Gray.