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Legal official loses Cabinet seat | |
(about 23 hours later) | |
Scotland's top law officer has lost her seat at the Scottish Cabinet table. | |
The new SNP government has decided to stop inviting Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini to the weekly meeting of senior ministers. | |
First Minister Alex Salmond told BBC Scotland he wanted law officers who were "independent of politics". | |
The move emerged after Mr Salmond's Cabinet secretaries were formally sworn in to office at the Court of Session, before the new Cabinet's first meeting. | |
Under UK law, the Lord Advocate remains a member of the Scottish government and its legal adviser, as well as Scotland's chief prosecutor. | |
The Lord Advocate normally attends the weekly Cabinet meeting, but Mr Salmond said he wanted law officers to establish "independence from the political process". | |
That will mean Ms Angiolini and her successors will no longer be invited to Cabinet meetings and other political discussions. | |
Cabinet was sworn in at the Court of Session | |
Earlier, Mr Salmond's new Cabinet secretaries, Nicola Sturgeon, John Swinney, Fiona Hyslop, Kenny MacAskill and Richard Lochhead all took the oath of office in front of senior judges. | |
The first minister, who was sworn in earlier, has rescheduled the weekly Cabinet meeting from a Wednesday morning to a Tuesday afternoon. | |
The five secretaries will each preside over their own departments and ministers. | |
Ms Sturgeon, the SNP's deputy leader, is deputy first minister and health secretary. | Ms Sturgeon, the SNP's deputy leader, is deputy first minister and health secretary. |
Mr Swinney is secretary for finance, Ms Hyslop handles education and lifelong learning, Mr MacAskill has been handed the justice brief and Mr Lochhead oversees rural affairs and the environment. |
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