JOHN Swinney has appointed a new Parliamentary Business Minister following the resignation of Jamie Hepburn.
Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, resigned on Friday after he was accused of assault by former Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross.
And now, the First Minister has announced that Graeme Dey will take on the ministerial role.
Ben Macpherson is set to replace Dey as Minister for Higher and Further Education.
Dey will remain Minister for Veterans and is one of dozens of MSPs who are standing down at the next election.
The Angus South MSP previously held the post of Parliamentary Business Minister between June 2018 and May 2021 under Nicola Sturgeon.
The Parliamentary Business Minister is in charge of steering the Government's legislation through Holyrood.
Macpherson returns to Government, having held various ministerial portfolios between 2018 and 2023.
The First Minister said: "I am delighted to appoint Graeme Dey as Minister for Parliamentary Business and Ben Macpherson as Minister-designate for Higher & Further Education.
“Graeme Dey brings wide experience of handling parliamentary business to this role and is a minister widely respected across the Parliamentary chamber for his open and constructive approach to finding common ground.
“Ben Macpherson has wider experience across a range of policy areas and will bring a creative and dynamic leadership to higher and further education that is so fundamental to transforming the lives of individuals across the country, and to supporting this government’s ambitious economic agenda.”
The appointments will have to be agreed by the Scottish Parliament and approved by the King.
It comes after Hepburn resigned from the role on Friday after Ross accused him of "physical assault and verbal abuse" following a row over a seagull summit.
Hepburn admitted he had put his hands on Ross's shoulder and used "industrious language", but denied hurting him.
However, in his resignation to the First Minister he said he had "not acted in accordance with my own personal code of practice".
The resignation came after Ross lodged a formal complaint with Swinney alleging that Hepburn's conduct had breached the ministerial code.
"Despite whatever annoyance I felt at that particular moment, there is a manner in which that might have been conveyed, or indeed shouldn’t have been conveyed," Hepburn wrote.
The incident took place after Ross used a parliamentary business motion, where MSPs were agreeing the next week's schedule, to call for a seagull summit to be postponed while a ministerial statement was delivered.
It occurred while MSPs were set to vote through landmark justice legislation that removed the not proven verdict from Scots Law.
In his response to Hepburn's resignation, Swinney said: "I know there will be no one more frustrated than you over this one slip in your normal approach of courtesy and respect to all."
