Second Salmond government

Alex Salmond formed the second Salmond government on 19 May 2011 following his Scottish National Party's landslide victory in the 2011 election to the 4th Scottish Parliament. This was the first single-party majority government in the history of the devolved parliament. Salmond's second government ended on 18 November 2014 upon his resignation as First Minister of Scotland.

Second Salmond government
6th government of Scotland
2011–2014
Salmond and his cabinet at Bute House, 2011
Date formed	19 May 2011
Date dissolved	18 November 2014
People and organisations
Monarch	Elizabeth II
First Minister	Alex Salmond
First Minister's history	MSP for Banff and Buchan (1999–2001) MSP for Aberdeenshire East (2007–2016)
Deputy First Minister	Nicola Sturgeon
Member party	Scottish National Party
Status in legislature	Majority 69 / 129 (53%)
Opposition party	Scottish Labour Party
Opposition leader	Iain Gray (2011) Johann Lamont (2011-14) Jackie Baillie (2014)
History
Election	2011 general election
Legislature term	4th Scottish Parliament
Budgets	2012 Scottish budget 2013 Scottish budget 2014 Scottish budget
Predecessor	First Salmond government
Successor	First Sturgeon government

History

2011 to 2012

On 18 May 2011, after Salmond was re-elected as first minister, his cabinet was increased in size, from five cabinet secretaries to eight.^[1][2] Nicola Sturgeon was re-appointed as Deputy First Minister and Health Secretary. John Swinney, Kenny McAskill and Richard Lochhead all remained in cabinet, with Fiona Hyslop returning, having served as Education Secretary from 2007 to 2009. Bruce Crawford and Alex Neil were promoted to cabinet.

2012 to 2013

In September 2012, Salmond made a snap reshuffle in light of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.^[3] Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Neil switched roles, with Sturgeon taking on responsibility for the independence referendum. Bruce Crawford announced his retirement from government.

2013 to 2014

In 2014, Shona Robison and Angela Constance were promoted to cabinet. Robison oversaw relations for the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games and Constance saw matters of employment.

Salmond announced his resignation as leader of the Scottish National Party on 19 September 2014 following the Scottish independence referendum; his resignation as SNP Leader took effect on 14 November when Nicola Sturgeon was elected unopposed to replace him.

On the 18 November, Salmond officially resigned as first minister and two days later Sturgeon formed her first government, dissolving Salmond's cabinet.

Cabinet

May 2011 to September 2012

Cabinet[4]
Post	Minister	Portrait	Term
First Minister	The Rt Hon. Alex Salmond MSP		2007–2014
Deputy First Minister	Nicola Sturgeon MSP		2007–2014
Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Cities Strategy			2007–2012
Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth	John Swinney MSP		2007–2014
Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning	Michael Russell MSP		2009–2014
Cabinet Secretary for Parliamentary Business and Government Strategy	Bruce Crawford MSP		2011–2012
Cabinet Secretary for Justice	Kenny MacAskill MSP		2007–2014
Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment	Richard Lochhead MSP		2007–2014
Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs	Fiona Hyslop MSP		2011–2014
Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure and Capital Investment	Alex Neil MSP		2011–2012

September 2012 to November 2014

Cabinet[4]
Post	Minister	Portrait	Term
First Minister	The Rt Hon. Alex Salmond MSP		2007–2014
Deputy First Minister	Nicola Sturgeon MSP		2007–2014
Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Capital Investment and Cities			2012–2014
Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth	John Swinney MSP		2007–2014
Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning	Michael Russell MSP		2009–2014
Cabinet Secretary for Justice	Kenny MacAskill MSP		2007–2014
Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment	Richard Lochhead MSP		2007–2014
Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs	Fiona Hyslop MSP		2011–2014
Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing	Alex Neil MSP		2012–2014
Cabinet Secretary for Training, Youth and Women’s Employment	Angela Constance MSP		2014
Cabinet Secretary for Commonwealth Games, Sport, Equalities and Pensioners' Rights	Shona Robison MSP		2014

Junior ministers

Junior ministers[4]
Post	Minister	Term
Minister for External Affairs and International Development	Humza Yousaf MSP	2011–2014
Minister for Public Health	Michael Matheson MSP	2011–2014
Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism	Fergus Ewing MSP	2011–2014
Minister for Local Government and Planning	Aileen Campbell MSP	2011
	Derek Mackay MSP	2011–2014
Minister for Children and Young People	Angela Constance MSP	2011–2014
	Aileen Campbell MSP	2011–2014
Minister for Learning and Skills	Dr Alasdair Allan MSP	2011
Minister for Learning, Science and Scotland's Languages		2011–2014
Minister for Parliamentary Business and Chief Whip	Brian Adam MSP	2011–2012
Minister for Parliamentary Business	Joe FitzPatrick MSP	2012–2014
Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs	Roseanna Cunningham MSP	2011–2014
Minister for Environment and Climate Change	Stewart Stevenson MSP	2011–2012
	Paul Wheelhouse MSP	2012–2014
Minister for Housing and Transport	Keith Brown MSP	2011–2012
Minister for Transport and Veterans		2012–2014

Scottish law officers

Law officers[4]
Post	Name	Term
Lord Advocate	The Right Hon. Frank Mulholland QC	2011–2014
Solicitor General for Scotland	Lesley Thomson QC	2011–2014