Product Code Database
Shona McRory Robison (born 26 May 1966) is a Scottish politician who has served as Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government since 2023. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), she previously served as Deputy First Minister of Scotland from 2023 to 2024. Robison has been the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Dundee City East since 2003 and was an additional member for the North East Scotland region from 1999 to 2003.
Robison served as Minister for Public Health and Sport from 2007 to 2011. She then oversaw the Scottish Government's preparations for the 2014 Commonwealth Games as Minister for Commonwealth Games and Sport from 2011 to April 2014, when she was promoted to the Scottish Cabinet by Alex Salmond as Cabinet Secretary for Commonwealth Games, Sport, Equalities and Pensioners' Rights. When Nicola Sturgeon succeeded Salmond as First Minister in November 2014, she appointed Robison the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport.
In 2018, she resigned from government during a cabinet reshuffle after being widely criticised for her poorly received tenure as Health Secretary. She returned to the backbenches, where she served on the justice and health committees. In 2021, Robison returned to Sturgeon's government as the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government. During her tenure in the position, she oversaw the government's efforts to pass the controversial Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill.
Following Sturgeon's resignation as first minister in 2023, Robison was appointed Deputy First Minister and Finance Secretary by Humza Yousaf in his new government. After Yousaf's resignation and the subsequent appointment of John Swinney as First Minister in 2024, Robison resigned as Deputy First Minister but retained her finance portfolio in Cabinet, with additional responsibility for local government.
Robison joined the Scottish National Party (SNP) in 1988. She was an active member of the party's youth wing the Young Scottish Nationalist, now known as Young Scots for Independence, where she met the likes of Nicola Sturgeon and Fiona Hyslop.
Before being elected to the Scottish Parliament, she worked in Glasgow City Council's Social Work Department.
She served in the SNP's opposition cabinet as the shadow deputy minister for health and community care.
In the 2003 Scottish Parliament election, Robison successfully defeated McAllion by just 100 votes in Dundee East. She served as the Shadow Minister for Health and Social Justice in the SNP's opposition benches. Robison was a member of the Health Committee.
In the run up to the Scottish independence referendum in 2014, Robison wrote to the University of Dundee to complain that a Dundee professor had chaired an event for the Better Together campaign. Robison insisted that Christopher Whatley's involvement in the Five Million Questions project about the implications of the referendum meant he should have taken a neutral stance on the constitutional issue. However, Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said: "I'm not sure this kind of bullying and intimidation is the best advert for the SNP's vision of a future separate Scotland. In fact, it is chilling."
In April 2014, Alex Salmond promoted her to the full Cabinet position of Cabinet Secretary for Commonwealth Games, Sport, Equalities and Pensioners' Rights.
On 26 June 2018, she announced her intention to resign from Cabinet. Shortly after a cabinet reshuffle was made by Sturgeon. BBC political correspondent Glenn Campbell wrote after the reshuffle: "The most widely anticipated departure was t/hat of health secretary, Shona Robison. She's been under considerable pressure over NHS performance. She stood down on the day the Scottish government confirmed its worst cancer waiting times for six years."
In February 2021, Audit Scotland published a report that concluded the Scottish Government had not prepared adequately for a pandemic. The watchdog also noted that recommendations from pandemic planning exercises during Robison's time as Health Secretary had not been fully implemented. One particular failure it highlighted was that not enough had been done to ensure Scottish hospitals and care homes had enough personal protective equipment (PPE). Overall, it concluded that ministers "could have been better prepared to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic". Nicola Sturgeon said there were "lots of lessons to learn".
The bill was blocked by the UK Government, with Robison stating that she would "vigorously contest" any attempt by the UK Government to block the gender reform legislations which the Scottish Parliament has control over. Under Section 35 of the Scotland Act 1998, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak blocked the implementation of the gender reform bill. This marked the first time that the UK Government had blocked a piece of legislation from being passed since devolution.
In July 2023, Robison intervened in the speculation over Inverclyde Royal Hospital being downgraded. Robison issued a statement through an interview with The Telegraph on the issue, stating that the hospital would not be downgraded or lose its casualty department, citing the fact that the Emergency Department at Inverclyde Royal Hospital was "one of the best performing A&E's in Scotland, certainly within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Robison committed further money for improvements to both NHS Scotland services and facilities, citing proposals set out to be met by 2026.
Robison delivered her first Medium–Term Financial Strategy to the Scottish Parliament in May 2023. Robison highlighted the importance of "sound public finances" being "key to ensuring we can tackle poverty and build a fair, green and growing economy whilst improving our public services". Robison claimed that the current economic situation in Scotland had "been amongst the most challenging since devolution", citing global issues such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and soaring inflation being driving factors directly impacting the Scottish economy. Robison was also critical of UK Government policy and decision making that had impacted on Scotland, including Brexit and its association economic impact, "a decade of austerity" and the September 2022 United Kingdom mini-budget.
During an interview on The Sunday Show on the BBC, Robison said "This will be one of the most difficult budgets under devolution and we will be having a number of challenges around how to make sure we can invest what we can in public services. But I need to be honest with the public that this budget, this UK Tory budget and the chancellor's decisions have made my job very difficult. This is the worst case scenario for the Scottish budget".
By April 2024, all Scottish local authorities, including Argyll and Bute Council and Inverclyde Council who had previously voted to increase council tax rates, confirmed that council tax would be frozen across all of Scotland's 32 local authorities after both Argyll and Bute and Inverclyde Councils voted to accept the Scottish Government funding package to support a council tax freeze for the forthcoming financial year. In a statement, Robison said that "many households continue to struggle with the impact of rising prices, and this council tax freeze – funded by the Scottish Government – is just one of many ways that we’re offering support. Council tax is already lower in Scotland than elsewhere in the UK, and over two million households will now benefit from this freeze. We deeply value the role local authorities play in Scotland’s communities, which is why – in the face of a profoundly challenging financial situation – we have made available record funding of more than £14 billion to councils in 2024-25, a real-terms increase of 2.5% compared with the previous year".
In February 2024, Robison wrote to Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, where she was critical of the UK Governments proposals as set out in the 2024 UK Spring Budget. In the letter, Robison claimed that "economic outlook for the UK continues to look uncertain and while inflation has fallen compared to a year ago, it is still high and this is continuing to place a considerable strain on both public sector and household budgets". Whilst she highlighted the continued strength of the economy of Scotland, she expressed concerns about the reduction in funding made available to the Scottish Government, as well as to other devolved governments, through the block grant. She claimed "Block Grant funding has fallen by 1.2% in real terms since 2022-23 and our UK capital funding is set to fall by almost 10% in real terms between 2023-24 and 2027-28", and as a result of the decrease in funding, argued for "increased investment by the UK Government in public services and infrastructure, as has been recognised by the International Monetary Fund". She also addressed the continued "fallout" facing the economy as a result of Brexit, again highlighting that the majority of the Scottish electorate voted against leaving the European Union. Robison argued that Brexit continues to have a negative impact on Scottish businesses as a result of additional complexities and increased costs as a result of leaving the European single market. Additionally, she highlighted to Hunt "National Institute of Economic and Social Research shows the UK economy is now 2.5% smaller than it would have been in the European Union, a gap which could increase to 5.7% by 2035".
The Scottish government confirmed up to £500 million in spending cuts as Robison explained that these savings were crucial for supporting the 2024-2025 Scottish budget. She attributed the financial pressures to prolonged Westminster austerity, Brexit, the war in Ukraine, and the cost of living crisis. Despite criticisms from opposition and advocacy groups, Robison defended the need for tough decisions to maintain fiscal responsibility.
In October 2024, strikes in Perth and Kinross closed schools, including in the constituency of incumbent first minister John Swinney, over pay disputes. The strikes were announced by trade union Unison and last for two weeks, with non–teaching staff, early years staff, janitorial and catering staff taking strike actions. Teachers were not striking during the strike action. In response, the first minister, John Swinney, called for an end to the strikes stating that he hopes "Unison will continue meaningful dialogue with local government and join colleagues by accepting the offer and ending industrial action", with Robison claiming that there was "no more money available" for improved local government pay deals.
Robison demanded "urgent clarity" on the announcement of additional funding to compensate for increased staffing in public sector services in Scotland. There had been suggestions that Scotland could be "short changed" if the compensation amount for the increase in National Insurance is not proportional to the size of the public sector in Scotland. Following the Autumn budget outlined by Reeves, Robison welcomed the budget claiming it was "a step in the right direction" but said that as a result of the budget, the Scottish Government "will still face enormous cost pressures".
Robison delivered the 2025 Scottish budget to the Scottish Parliament on 4 December 2024. In the budget, Robison pledged that the Scottish Government would end the two child benefit cap in 2026. Additionally, record spending for the National Health Service in Scotland was announced, with £21 billion being earmarked for the NHS in order to reduce waiting times and to ensure access to GPs was easier for the public. Additional measures announced in the budget included extra winter payments for the elderly, funding to tackle the climate emergency and scrapping the council tax freeze. Opposition parties in the Scottish Parliament were critical of the budget, with Scottish Labour stating that the government was "going in the wrong direction", whilst the Scottish Conservatives claimed that budget was "more of the same" from previous budgets set by the Scottish Government.
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|
|
