Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans

Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans
Incumbent Keith Brown MSP since 20 May 2021
Justice Directorate
Style	Cabinet Secretary (within parliament) Justice Secretary (informal) Scottish Justice Secretary (outwith Scotland)
Member of	Scottish Cabinet
Reports to	Scottish Parliament
Seat	Edinburgh
Appointer	First Minister of Scotland
Inaugural holder	Jim Wallace Minister for Justice
Formation	July 1999
Deputy	Ash Denham (Minister for Community Safety)
Salary	£112,919 annually (including £64,470 MSP salary)
Website	www.gov.scot

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The Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans, commonly referred to as the Justice Secretary, is a position in the Scottish Government Cabinet. The Cabinet Secretary has overall responsibility for law and order in Scotland. The Cabinet Secretary is assisted by the Minister for Community Safety.

The current Cabinet Secretary for Justice is Keith Brown, who was appointed in May 2021.

History[]

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The position was created in 1999 as the Minister for Justice, with the advent of devolution and the institution of the Scottish Parliament, taking over some of the roles and functions of the former Scottish Office Minister of State for Home Affairs that existed prior to 1999.

As with the UK Secretary of State for Justice, but unlike some other justice ministers, the Cabinet Secretary does not have any oversight of prosecutions - in Scotland these are handled by the Lord Advocate.

Overview[]

Responsibilities[]

The responsibilities of the Cabinet Secretary for Justice include:^[1]

• Policing
• Fire and rescue services
• Courts & sentencing
• The justice system and criminal law procedure
• Violence reduction
• Prison reform and prisoner policy
• Reducing reoffending
• Security
• Youth justice
• Access to justice
• Civil law
• Victim/witness support
• Criminal injuries compensation
• Legal aid fund
• Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service
• Bairn's Hoose
• Justice reform
• National Community Justice Strategy
• Veterans

Public bodies[]

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The following public bodies report to the Cabinet Secretary for Justice:

• Disclosure Scotland
• Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland
• Judicial Complaints Reviewer
• Parole Board for Scotland
• Police Investigations and Review Commissioner
• Risk Management Authority
• Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service
• Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission
• Scottish Fire and Rescue Service
• Scottish Law Commission
• Scottish Legal Aid Board
• Scottish Legal Complaints Commission
• Scottish Police Authority
• Scottish Prison Service

Salary[]

The Cabinet Secretary for Justice is paid a total salary of £112,919, which is made up of £64,470 for being a MSP, and an additional allowance of £48,449 for the responsibility of being a Cabinet Secretary.^[2]

List of office holders[]

Minister for Justice[]
Name		Portrait	Entered office	Left office	Party	First Minister
	Jim Wallace		19 May 1999	21 May 2003	Liberal Democrats		Donald Dewar Henry McLeish Jack McConnell
	Cathy Jamieson		21 May 2003	17 May 2007	Labour Party		Jack McConnell
Cabinet Secretary for Justice[]
	Kenny MacAskill		17 May 2007	21 November 2014	Scottish National Party		Alex Salmond
	Michael Matheson		21 November 2014	26 June 2018			Nicola Sturgeon
	Humza Yousaf		26 June 2018	20 May 2021
	Keith Brown		20 May 2021	Incumbent

See also[]

• Politics of Scotland
• Scottish Government
• Scottish Parliament

References[]