Parliamentary and Government Role
Until devolution in 1999, all Lord Advocates were, by convention, members of the United Kingdom government, although the post was not normally in the Cabinet. Since devolution, the Lord Advocate has been an automatically ex officio member of the Scottish Government.
From 1999 until 2007, the Lord Advocate attended the weekly Scottish Cabinet meetings. However, after the 2007 election, the new First Minister Alex Salmond decided that Lord Advocate would no longer attend the Scottish Cabinet, stating he wished to "de-politicise" the post.
Until devolution, all Lord Advocates were, by convention, members of either the House of Commons or the House of Lords to allow them to speak for the Government. Those who were not already members of either house received a life peerage on appointment. Post-devolution, the Lord Advocate and the Solicitor General for Scotland are permitted to attend and speak in the Scottish Parliament ex officio, even if they are not Members of the Scottish Parliament.
Read more about this topic: Lord Advocate
Famous quotes containing the words government and/or role:
“Our system of government, in spite of Vietnam, Cambodia, CIA, Watergate, is still the best system of government on earth. And the greatest resource of all are the 215 million Americans who still have within us the strength, the character, the intelligence, the experience, the patriotism, the idealism, the compassion, the sense of brotherhood on which we can rely in the future to restore the greatness to our country.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“I wish glib and indiscriminate critics of industrialists had some conception of the problems that have to be met by factory management.... General condemnation of employers is a favorite indoor sport of the uninformed intelligentsia who assume the role of lance- bearers for labor.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)