FORMER Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Tavish Scott has been handed a front-line role in a reshuffle by successor Willie Rennie who praised him as a "big voice" in the party.
Mr Scott continues to speak on sporting issues but also takes on transport, rural affairs, fisheries and environment from colleague Jim Hume.
Mr Hume in turn keeps housing but takes on the health portfolio from Allison McInnes who continues to speak on justice. Only Liam McArthur, with his portfolio of energy, young people and education, is unaffected by the changes.
Mr Rennie said: "I'm delighted that we are able to deploy Tavish Scott's experience as a minister on the transport and environment brief. He is a big voice in our party and will use his experience to hold the Government to account.
"Jim Hume has helped to lead successful campaigns to save community hospitals in the south of Scotland. He cares deeply about the future of our health service and now takes on the health portfolio in addition to the excellent work he has already done on housing."
He added: "Our team of strong liberal voices in the Scottish Parliament have consistently punched above our weight. With these changes, Scottish Liberal Democrats move forward into important years for Scotland's future with the best team to make a real difference for communities across the country."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article