Richard Lochhead

Richard Lochhead MSP


Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Food and Environment
In office 17 May 2007 – 18 May 2016
First Minister	Alex Salmond Nicola Sturgeon
Preceded by	Ross Finnie
Succeeded by	Fergus Ewing
Member of the Scottish Parliament for Moray
Incumbent
Assumed office 27 April 2006
Preceded by	Margaret Ewing
Majority	2,875
Member of the Scottish Parliament for North East Scotland
In office 6 May 1999 – 19 April 2006
Preceded by	new parliament
Succeeded by	Maureen Watt
Personal details
Born	(1969-05-24) 24 May 1969 Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland
Nationality	Scottish
Political party	Scottish National Party
Spouse(s)	Fiona Lochhead
Children	2
Alma mater	University of Stirling
Occupation	Office manager; Economic development officer
Website	www.richardlochhead.org

Richard Neilson Lochhead (born 24 May 1969) is a Scottish politician who was the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Food and Environment from 2007 to 2016 and has been the Scottish National Party Member of the Scottish Parliament for Moray since 2006.

Background and early career

A native of Paisley, Lochhead attended Williamwood High School in Clarkston and Central College of Commerce in Glasgow before he graduated in 1994 in Political Studies from the University of Stirling. He worked for the SNP leader, Alex Salmond, as his Office Manager from 1994 to 1998, before becoming an environmental development officer for Dundee City Council. He was the SNP candidate in Gordon in the 1997 UK General Election, where he finished third. He subsequently fought the Aberdeen Central constituency in both 1999 and 2003, but came second to Lewis Macdonald each time.

Lochhead is married to Fiona, and they live in Elgin with their two young sons.

Scottish Parliament

Lochhead was elected to the Scottish Parliament at the 1999 election and re-elected at the 2003 election for the North East Scotland Region. In January 2006 he was selected as the SNP candidate for Moray for the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections, following the announcement that Margaret Ewing MSP would be retiring. He beat Margaret Ewing's sister-in-law, former MP Annabelle Ewing in the selection.^[1] Ewing's premature death triggered a by-election and Lochhead resigned his additional member seat in April 2006 in order to successfully contest the Moray by-election. He was elected on 28 April 2006.^[2] This was the first time since the second world war that an incumbent party had retained a by-election seat without losing votes or having their majority or share of the vote lowered.

He is a former convener of the European and External Relations Committee of the Scottish Parliament. In opposition he held the SNP's portfolios on Environment, Energy, Fishing and Rural Affairs in the Scottish Parliament.

After the SNP's victory at the 2007 Scottish Parliament Election, it was announced on 16 May 2007 that Lochhead would be the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Environment, taking up the position the following day.^[3] The junior Ministerial position of Minister for the Environment was initially given to Michael Russell (currently held by Aileen McLeod). In May 2007, Lochhead started his tenure with promises to "relentlessly" pursue the Scottish fishing interests on behalf of fishermen and their communities.^[4]

Lochhead was re-elected at the 2011 election with a further increased majority of 10,944. He announced his resignation as Environment Secretary, effective on 18 May 2016, as Nicola Sturgeon put together her reshuffle to appoint the second Sturgeon government.

References

↑ "Salmond closer to Holyrood return". BBC News. BBC. 4 January 2006. Retrieved 22 March 2006.
↑ "SNP's joy at by-election victory". BBC News. BBC. 28 April 2006.
↑ "Salmond announces his new cabinet". BBC News. BBC. 16 May 2007.
↑ "SNP to trawl for thoughts of fishermen". The Scotsman. 25 May 2007. Retrieved 13 January 2015.

External links

Scottish Parliament
Preceded by Constituency Created	Member of the Scottish Parliament for North East Scotland 1999–2006	Succeeded by Maureen Watt
Preceded by Margaret Ewing	Member of the Scottish Parliament for Moray 2006–present	Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Ross Finnie (as Minister for the Environment and Rural Development)	Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment 2007–2016	Succeeded by Roseanna Cunningham

Scottish Cabinet

Nicola Sturgeon (First Minister)
John Swinney (Deputy First Minister and Education and Skills)
Derek Mackay (Finance and the Constitution)
Keith Brown (Economy, Jobs and Fair Work)
Roseanna Cunningham (Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform)
Shona Robison (Health and Sport)
Angela Constance (Communities, Social Security and Equalities)
Michael Matheson (Justice)
Fergus Ewing (Rural Economy and Connectivity)
Fiona Hyslop (Culture, Tourism and External Affairs)

Members of the Scottish Parliament in the Highlands and Islands region

Elected in the 2016 election

Constituency MSPs	Michael Russell (SNP, Argyll and Bute) Gail Ross (SNP, Caithness, Sutherland and Ross) Fergus Ewing (SNP, Inverness and Nairn) Richard Lochhead (SNP, Moray) Liam McArthur (Lib Dem, Orkney) Kate Forbes (SNP, Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch) Tavish Scott (Lib Dem, Shetland) Alasdair Allan (SNP, Western Isles)

Additional members	Donald Cameron (Con) John Finnie (Green) Rhoda Grant (Lab) Edward Mountain (Con) Douglas Ross (Con) David Stewart (Lab) Maree Todd (SNP)

SNP (7 seats), Conservative (3 seats), Liberal Democrats (2 seats), Labour (2 seats), Greens (1 seat)

Scottish National Party MSPs

First Minister	Nicola Sturgeon

Cabinet Secretaries	John Swinney Derek Mackay Shona Robison Roseanna Cunningham Fiona Hyslop Angela Constance Michael Matheson Keith Brown Fergus Ewing

Ministers	Mark McDonald Shirley-Anne Somerville Joe FitzPatrick Humza Yousaf Paul Wheelhouse Jamie Hepburn Aileen Campbell Maureen Watt Annabelle Ewing Kevin Stewart Jeane Freeman Alasdair Allan

Backbench	George Adam Clare Adamson Tom Arthur Colin Beattie Willie Coffey Bruce Crawford Ash Denham Graeme Dey Bob Doris James Dornan Mairi Evans Linda Fabiani Kate Forbes Kenneth Gibson Jenny Gilruth Christine Grahame Emma Harper Clare Haughey Bill Kidd Richard Lochhead Richard Lyle Angus MacDonald Gordon MacDonald Fulton MacGregor Rona Mackay Ben Macpherson Ruth Maguire Gillian Martin John Mason Joan McAlpine Ivan McKee Christina McKelvie Stuart McMillan Alex Neil Gil Paterson Gail Ross Michael Russell Stewart Stevenson Maree Todd David Torrance Sandra White

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