Michael Matheson (politician)

Michael Matheson MSP


Cabinet Secretary for Justice
Incumbent
Assumed office 21 November 2014
First Minister	Nicola Sturgeon
Preceded by	Kenny MacAskill
Minister for Public Health
In office 20 May 2011 – 21 November 2014
First Minister	Alex Salmond
Preceded by	Shona Robison
Succeeded by	Maureen Watt
Member of the Scottish Parliament for Falkirk West
Incumbent
Assumed office 3 May 2007
Preceded by	Dennis Canavan
Majority	5745 (20.4%)
Member of the Scottish Parliament for Central Scotland
In office 6 May 1999 – 3 May 2007
Personal details
Born	(1970-09-08) 8 September 1970 Glasgow, Scotland
Political party	Scottish National Party
Children	3
Alma mater	Queen Margaret University Open University
Profession	Occupational therapist
Religion	Roman Catholic

Michael Stephen Matheson (born 8 September 1970) is a Scottish politician who has been the Cabinet Secretary for Justice since 2014. He has been a Scottish National Party Member of the Scottish Parliament since 1999, first representing Central Scotland and, since 2007, the Falkirk West constituency.

Early life

Matheson was born in Glasgow and was educated at St John Bosco Secondary School in the city. He then attended Queen Margaret College, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in occupational therapy in 1991. He later went on to graduate from the Open University with both a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Postgraduate diploma in applied social sciences.

Following graduation, he worked as a community occupational therapist for eight years, until his election to the Scottish Parliament. During that time he worked for Highland Regional Council, Central Regional Council and Stirling Council.

Political career

Westminster parliamentary candidate

Matheson first stood as a parliamentary candidate for the SNP in the 1997 general election, standing for the newly created Hamilton North and Bellshill constituency.

Member of the Scottish Parliament

In the 1999 Scottish parliamentary election, Matheson contested the Falkirk West constituency, which was won by the independent Dennis Canavan, who had been rejected by the Labour Party.^[1] However, Matheson was ranked third on the SNP's regional list for Central Scotland and was one of the five SNP candidates elected in the region.

He served as Shadow Deputy Minister for Justice from May 1999 until September 2004, and as Shadow Deputy Minister for Rural Development from October 2001 until September 2004. Matheson also served on the Equal Opportunities Committee, the Justice and Home Affairs Committee, and the Justice 1 Committee between 1999 and 2004.^[2] During the 2000 SNP deputy leadership election, he was the campaign manager for Roseanna Cunningham.

He contested the Falkirk West constituency again at the 2003 Scottish parliamentary election, and although it was won again by Denis Canavan, Matheson was re-elected as one of three SNP MSPs for Central Scotland. In the parliament's second session he served on the Justice 1 Committee, the Enterprise and Culture Committee and the Justice 2 Committee. From September 2004 until September 2006, he was Shadow Minister for Culture and Sport.^[3]

Matheson won the constituency in the 2007 election with a majority of 776 votes over Labour, after Canavan stepped down.^[1] (Canavan later endorsed Matheson for re-election in 2011).^[1]

Matheson was a member of the Health and Sport Committee from June 2007 until March 2011 and was the Deputy Convener of the European and External Relations Committee from March 2009 until July 2010.^[4] He was also a member of the End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill Committee.^[4]

Before becoming a Minister, Matheson was actively involved in a number of Parliamentary Cross-Party Groups, including those on Malawi, Sport, Alzheimer's disease, International development, Russia and Taiwan.

At the 2011 Scottish parliamentary election, he retained his seat with an increased majority of 5,745 votes over Labour.

Government Minister

He was appointed as Minister for Public Health after the SNP landslide in 2011, a position he held until the November 2014 reshuflle which saw him promoted to Cabinet rank as Cabinet Secretary for Justice.

References

1 2 3 Dinwoodie, Robin (30 April 2011). "The Canavan endorsement could swing it again for confident Nationalists". The Herald. Retrieved 30 April 2011.
↑ "Previous MSPs: Session 1 (1999-2003): Michael Matheson MSP". Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
↑ "Previous MSPs: Session 2 (2003-2007): Michael Matheson MSP". Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
1 2 "Previous MSPs: Session 3 (2007-2011): Michael Matheson MSP". Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 23 January 2015.

External links

Michael Matheson MSP Scottish Parliament website
Michael Matheson MSP official constituency website
Scottish National Party - Falkirk District

Scottish Parliament
Preceded by Constituency Created	Member of the Scottish Parliament for Central Scotland 1999–2007	Succeeded by Jamie Hepburn
Preceded by Dennis Canavan	Member of the Scottish Parliament for Falkirk West 2007–present	Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Shona Robison	Minister for Public Health 2011–2014	Succeeded by Maureen Watt
Preceded by Kenny MacAskill	Cabinet Secretary for Justice 2014–present	Incumbent

Scottish Cabinet

Nicola Sturgeon (First Minister)
John Swinney (Deputy First Minister and Finance, Constitution and Economy)
Keith Brown (Infrastructure, Investment and Cities)
Roseanna Cunningham (Fair Work, Skills and Training)
Angela Constance (Education and Lifelong Learning)
Shona Robison (Health, Wellbeing and Sport)
Alex Neil (Social Justice, Communities and Pensioners' Rights)
Michael Matheson (Justice)
Richard Lochhead (Rural Affairs, Food and Environment)
Fiona Hyslop (Culture, Europe and External Affairs)

Members of the Scottish Parliament in the Central Scotland region

Elected in the 2011 election

Constituency MSPs	Alex Neil (SNP, Airdrie and Shotts) Elaine Smith (Lab, Coatbridge and Chryston) Jamie Hepburn (SNP, Cumbernauld and Kilsyth) Linda Fabiani (SNP, East Kilbride) Angus MacDonald (SNP, Falkirk East) Michael Matheson (SNP, Falkirk West) Christina McKelvie (SNP, Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse) John Pentland (Lab, Motherwell and Wishaw) Michael McMahon (Lab, Uddingston and Bellshill)

Additional members	Clare Adamson (SNP) Richard Lyle (SNP) Mark Griffin (Lab) Margaret Mitchell (Con) Siobhan McMahon (Lab) Margaret McCulloch (Lab) John Wilson (SNP, then Ind)

Labour (6 seats), SNP (8 seats), Conservative (1 seat), Independent (1 seat)

Scottish National Party MSPs

Cabinet Secretaries	Nicola Sturgeon John Swinney Angela Constance Michael Matheson Keith Brown Richard Lochhead Shona Robison Roseanna Cunningham Fiona Hyslop Alex Neil

Ministers	Fergus Ewing Joe FitzPatrick Derek Mackay Annabelle Ewing Aileen Campbell Alasdair Allan Maureen Watt Jamie Hepburn Marco Biagi Margaret Burgess Paul Wheelhouse Humza Yousaf Aileen McLeod

Backbench	George Adam Clare Adamson Christian Allard Colin Beattie Chic Brodie Roderick Campbell Willie Coffey Bruce Crawford Graeme Dey Nigel Don Bob Doris James Dornan Jim Eadie Linda Fabiani Kenneth Gibson Rob Gibson Christine Grahame Adam Ingram Colin Keir Bill Kidd Richard Lyle Kenny MacAskill Angus MacDonald Gordon MacDonald Mike MacKenzie John Mason Stewart Maxwell Joan McAlpine Mark McDonald Christina McKelvie Fiona McLeod Stuart McMillan Gil Paterson Dennis Robertson Michael Russell Alex Salmond Stewart Stevenson Kevin Stewart Dave Thompson David Torrance Sandra White

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