First Swinney government
incumbent Scottish Government since 2024
John Swinney formed the first Swinney government on 8 May 2024, following his appointment as First Minister of Scotland at the Court of Session. The government was approved by parliamentary vote thanks to the abstention of Scottish Green MSPs.
Swinney's government was announced on 8 May following his tenure as first minister beginning, and includes eleven cabinet secretaries, the majority of whom are women, with the youngest deputy first minister, Kate Forbes, being appointed by Swinney. The majority of members of the government were part of the cabinet under Swinney's predecessor, Humza Yousaf's second government.
Newly appointed cabinet secretaries who were not part of the previous government were appointed as cabinet secretary designates, pending approval by members of the Scottish Parliament and receiving approval by the incumbent monarch.
Swinney's first government dissolved on 20 May 2026 following the 2026 election to the 7th Scottish Parliament, which saw Swinney returning to office and forming a second government.
History
On 29 April 2024, Humza Yousaf announced his intention to resign the leadership of the Scottish National Party, and as First Minister. Swinney announced his candidacy for the internal leadership contest, and was elected unopposed. Shona Robison resigned as Deputy First Minister on 8 May in favour of Kate Forbes, but was re-appointed as Swinney's Finance Secretary with additional responsibility for local government.
The majority of Swinney's cabinet served in Humza Yousaf's government.
“First Swinney government” enters the record as incumbent Scottish Government since 2024. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what First, Swinney and government can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q125848937. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2024 and 2026.
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This entry incorporates text from “First Swinney government” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.