Deputy First Minister of Scotland

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The Deputy First Minister of Scotland is the deputy to the First Minister of Scotland.

The post is not recognised in statute (in comparison with the post of First Minister which is established by the Scotland Act 1998), and its holder is simply an ordinary member of the Scottish Executive. The post existed in since the establishment of the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Executive in 1999 until 2007.

The Additional Member System used to elect Members of the Scottish Parliament makes it difficult for a single party to have an absolute majority. Between 1999 and 2007, the Scottish Executive was formed by a Labour and Liberal Democrat coalition. The First Minister was appointed from the majority coalition partner (Labour) and the Deputy First Minister from the minority partner (Liberal Democrats).

The current Deputy First Minister is Nicola Sturgeon MSP of the Scottish National Party (SNP).^[1] Following the 2007 elections the SNP has taken over the Executive as a minority administration (not in a formal coalition.)

During the illness of the first First Minister, Donald Dewar, the Deputy First Minister took over the running of the Executive.

It has been pointed out that the title is not in line with traditional Scottish usage, which uses the form "Depute" in preference to "Deputy".

[edit] List of Deputy First Ministers

	Name	Entered Office	Left Office	Party
1.	Jim Wallace	7 May 1999	23 June 2005	Liberal Democrats
2.	Nicol Stephen	23 June 2005	16 May 2007	Liberal Democrats
3.	Nicola Sturgeon	16 May 2007	Incumbent	Scottish National Party

v • d • e Scottish Cabinet

Alex Salmond (First Minister) · Nicola Sturgeon (Deputy First Minister and Health and Wellbeing) · John Swinney (Finance and Sustainable Growth) · Fiona Hyslop (Education and Lifelong Learning) · Kenny MacAskill (Justice) · Richard Lochhead (Rural Affairs and the Environment)