Maureen Watt

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Maureen Watt is a Scottish National Party (SNP) Member of the Scottish Parliament for North East Scotland since 2006.

Born in Aberdeen to a farming family, she was a secondary school teacher in Social Studies in England and moved back to Scotland to work in the oil sector.

She was sworn in as MSP on 19 April 2006 to replace Richard Lochhead who had resigned his seat to contest the Moray by-election. The next person on the SNP list from the 2003 election had been Alasdair Allan but he refused his place in Parliament as he had secured the SNP nomination for the Western Isles for the 2007 election. The next person on the list was Maureen Watt, who took up the place. She became the first MSP to swear their oath of allegiance in Doric.

Watt made her maiden speech [1] on 20 April 2006 on the subject of Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation. With a gap of only 17 hours 25 minutes since taking the Parliamentary oath she took over the record for the shortest wait from John Scott.

She had previously been a Councillor on Grampian Regional Council and had served on the Visiting Committee of Aberdeen Prison.

After the SNP's victory at the 2007 Scottish Parliament Election, Watt was appointed as the Minister for Schools and Skills.

[edit] Family

Watt is the daughter of former SNP MP (1974-1979) Hamish Watt. She is married with two children.

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Flag of Scotland     Members of the Scottish Parliament in the North East Scotland region

Elected in the 2007 election

SNP (8 seats), Labour (3 seats), Lib Dems (3 seats), Con (2 seats)

Constituency MSPs
Lewis Macdonald (Lab, Aberdeen Central) • Brian Adam (SNP, Aberdeen North) • Nicol Stephen (Lib Dem, Aberdeen South) • Andrew Welsh (SNP, Angus) • Stewart Stevenson (SNP, Banff and Buchan) • Shona Robison (SNP, Dundee East) • Joe Fitzpatrick (SNP, Dundee West) •Alex Salmond (SNP, Gordon) • Mike Rumbles (Lib Dem, West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)

Additional Members
Richard Baker (Lab) • Nigel Don (SNP) • Marlyn Glen (Lab) • Alex Johnstone (Con) • Alison McInnes (Lib Dem) • Nanette Milne (Con) • Maureen Watt (SNP)
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Scottish National Party MSPs

Elected in the 2007 election
Brian Adam · Bashir Ahmad · Alasdair Allan · Keith Brown · Aileen Campbell · Willie Coffey · Angela Constance · Bruce Crawford · Roseanna Cunningham · Nigel Don · Bob Doris  · Fergus Ewing · Linda Fabiani · Joe Fitzpatrick · Kenneth Gibson · Rob Gibson · Christine Grahame · Chris Harvie · Jamie Hepburn · Fiona Hyslop · Adam Ingram · Bill Kidd · Richard Lochhead · Kenny MacAskill · Tricia Marwick · Jim Mather · Michael Matheson · Stewart Maxwell · Ian McKee · Christina McKelvie · Stuart McMillan · Alasdair Morgan · Alex Neil  · Gil Paterson · Shona Robison · Michael Russell · Alex Salmond · Shirley-Anne Somerville · Stewart Stevenson · Nicola Sturgeon · John Swinney · David Thompson · Maureen Watt · Andrew Welsh · Sandra White · Bill Wilson · John Wilson
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Flag of Scotland     Junior Ministers in the Scottish Government

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