he First Minister (FM) in Scotland is the head of the Scottish cabinet and has responsibility for the formulation, development and presentation of Scottish government policy. These roles- and numerous additional ones- indicate that the FM does, in fact, play an important roles within the Scottish Parliament. This essays main focus will be to evaluate the FM's importance; specifically, his importance in regards to decision making within the parliament and consequently within Scotland itself.
The First Minister represents Scotland in all devolved areas. This means that the elected First Minister is expected to have a clear vision for running the country and to make decisions and frame policies for education, health and transport. It is also …show more content…
This is ensured through FMQT. The FM's decisions can be question and even ridiculed by other parties in FM's Question Time. First Minister's Questions Time is held every Thursday at noon or by submitting a written question. First Minister's Question Time is mostly dominated by the leaders of Labour, Conservatives and the Liberal Democrat parties and therefore very few backbench MSP's get the opportunity to ask the First Minister a question. However now that Nicola Sturgeon has increased the length of FMQT to 45mins this gives individual MSP's the opportunity to ask a question to the the First Minister. During 2014-2015 only 318 questions were asked at First Minister's Question compared to 3,654 written questions to the First Minister during the same period. An example of a question being asked would be in November 2014, Jackie Bailey of the Labour party stated that "the number of college students has been cut by 140,000 since 2007" further adding emphasis on her criticism by adding "the number of teachers in Scotland has dropped by 4,000". She highlighted the SNP's failure in relation to improving education standards numerous times, thus bringing the government to account for its actions publicly, making the media portray the SNP and its leader in a negative light. This shows that despite the fact that the FM can make important decisions in regards to Scotland, in the case that those decisions are …show more content…
For example Alex Salmond visited China on more than one occasion during his time as FM in order to improve trade-links with the country and with an eye in attracting foreign investments and jobs to Scotland. Nicola sturgeon also visited China in 2015 for a trade mission to improve links between countries. It is estimated that Chinese have contributed £112m to the Scottish economy in 2012 and 2014. She has also attended sporting events to represent Scotland, including the Wimbledon final in 2016. This gives the FM tremendous influence as they are essentially figureheads for Scotland and can have a impact on Scottish economic policy by raising the profile of the nation abroad and by attracting investment. This clearly show that putting Scotland on map is a an important decision for the FM to as we reap what we
The First Minister represents Scotland in all devolved areas. This means that the elected First Minister is expected to have a clear vision for running the country and to make decisions and frame policies for education, health and transport. It is also …show more content…
This is ensured through FMQT. The FM's decisions can be question and even ridiculed by other parties in FM's Question Time. First Minister's Questions Time is held every Thursday at noon or by submitting a written question. First Minister's Question Time is mostly dominated by the leaders of Labour, Conservatives and the Liberal Democrat parties and therefore very few backbench MSP's get the opportunity to ask the First Minister a question. However now that Nicola Sturgeon has increased the length of FMQT to 45mins this gives individual MSP's the opportunity to ask a question to the the First Minister. During 2014-2015 only 318 questions were asked at First Minister's Question compared to 3,654 written questions to the First Minister during the same period. An example of a question being asked would be in November 2014, Jackie Bailey of the Labour party stated that "the number of college students has been cut by 140,000 since 2007" further adding emphasis on her criticism by adding "the number of teachers in Scotland has dropped by 4,000". She highlighted the SNP's failure in relation to improving education standards numerous times, thus bringing the government to account for its actions publicly, making the media portray the SNP and its leader in a negative light. This shows that despite the fact that the FM can make important decisions in regards to Scotland, in the case that those decisions are …show more content…
For example Alex Salmond visited China on more than one occasion during his time as FM in order to improve trade-links with the country and with an eye in attracting foreign investments and jobs to Scotland. Nicola sturgeon also visited China in 2015 for a trade mission to improve links between countries. It is estimated that Chinese have contributed £112m to the Scottish economy in 2012 and 2014. She has also attended sporting events to represent Scotland, including the Wimbledon final in 2016. This gives the FM tremendous influence as they are essentially figureheads for Scotland and can have a impact on Scottish economic policy by raising the profile of the nation abroad and by attracting investment. This clearly show that putting Scotland on map is a an important decision for the FM to as we reap what we