Nicola Sturgeon Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon (born 19 July 1970) is a Scottish politician serving as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) since 2014. She is the first woman to hold either position. She has been a member of ...

formed the first Sturgeon government on 20 November 2014, following the resignation of previous SNP

First Minister A first minister is any of a variety of leaders of government cabinets. The term literally has the same meaning as "prime minister" but is typically chosen to distinguish the office-holder from a superior prime minister. Currently the title of ' ...

Alex Salmond Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond (; born 31 December 1954) is a Scottish politician and economist who served as First Minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014. A prominent figure on the Scottish nationalist movement, he has served as leader ...

. Sturgeon, who had been Deputy First Minister under Salmond, was elected to succeed him by the SNP majority in the

Scottish Parliament The Scottish Parliament ( gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Pairlament) is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood area of the capital city, Edinburgh, it is frequently referred to by the metonym Holyro ...

on 19 November 2014, before being officially sworn in in front of senior judges at the

Court of Session The Court of Session is the supreme civil court of Scotland and constitutes part of the College of Justice; the supreme criminal court of Scotland is the High Court of Justiciary. The Court of Session sits in Parliament House in Edinburgh ...

the next day. Sturgeon's cabinet dissolved on 18 May 2016 following the 2016 election to the

5th Scottish parliament This is a list of Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) who were returned to the fifth session of the Scottish Parliament. Of the 129 MSPs returned at the 2016 general election, 73 were returned from first past the post constituencies with a ...

, which saw Sturgeon returning to office and forming a second administration.

History

Following the defeat of the campaign for Scottish independence in a 2014 referendum, then First Minister

, who had arranged the referendum, announced that he would resign as Scottish National Party leader and first minister after a new leader was chosen. Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon took the leadership unopposed at the SNP's annual conference on 14 November 2014. This also effectively made her First Minister-designate, given the SNP's outright majority in the Scottish Parliament. She was elected to succeed Salmond as First Minister by the Scottish Parliament on 19 November, and formally appointed by Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

on the next day. On 21 November 2014 Sturgeon's first cabinet was announced. It was formed of ten people: Sturgeon and nine cabinet secretaries. It was gender-balanced with five men and five women. There were thirteen junior ministerial positions outwith the cabinet.

Cabinet

November 2016 to May 2016

Changes

* Sir

Peter Housden Sir Peter James Housden (born 7 December 1950) is a former public official who worked in local and central government. He served as Permanent Secretary to the Scottish Government from June 2010 to June 2015. He was previously Permanent Secret ...

stood down as the

Permanent Secretary to the Scottish government The Permanent Secretary to the Scottish Government is the most senior civil servant in Scotland who leads more than 7000 staff within the Scottish Government and has oversight of around 125 agencies. The permanent secretary supports the Scottish ...

in June 2015 and was succeeded by

Leslie Evans Leslie Evans (born 11 December 1958) was the Permanent Secretary to the Scottish Government. In this role, Evans was the principal policy adviser to the First Minister and Secretary to the Scottish Cabinet. Evans was the senior civil servant ...

the following month.

Junior Ministers

Scottish Law Officers

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sturgeon ministry, First Scottish governments 2014 establishments in Scotland 2016 disestablishments in Scotland Nicola Sturgeon Ministries of Elizabeth II