Richard Neilson Lochhead is a Scottish politician who has been the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Food and Environment since 2007 and the Scottish National Party Member of the for Moray since 2006.
Education
A native of Paisley, Lochhead attended Williamwood High School in Clarkston and Central College of Commerce in Glasgow before he graduated in 1994 in Political Studies from the University of Stirling. He was the Scottish National Party candidate in Gordon in the 1997 United Kingdom General Election, where he finished third.
Career
He worked for the Scottish National Party leader, Alex Salmond, as his Office Manager from 1994 to 1998, before becoming an environmental development officer for Dundee City Council. He subsequently fought the Aberdeen Central constituency in both 1999 and 2003, but came second to Lewis Macdonald each time. Lochhead is married to Fiona, and they live in Elgin with their two young sons.
Lochhead was elected to the at the 1999 election and re-elected at the 2003 election for the North East Scotland Region.
In January 2006 he was selected as the Scottish National Party candidate for Moray for the 2007 elections, following the announcement that Margaret Ewing Managing Successful Programmes would be retiring. Ewing"s premature death triggered a by-election and Lochhead resigned his additional member seat in April 2006 in order to successfully contest the Moray by-election.
He was elected on 28 April 2006. This was the first time since the second world war that an incumbent party had retained a by-election seat without losing votes or having their majority or share of the vote lowered.
He is a former convener of the European and External Relations Committee of the In opposition he held the Scottish National Party"s portfolios on Environment, Energy, Fishing and Rural Affairs in the After the Scottish National Party"s victory at the 2007 Election, it was announced on 16 May 2007 that Lochhead would be the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Environment, taking up the position the following day.
The junior Ministerial position of Minister for the Environment was initially given to Michael Russell (currently held by Aileen McLeod). In May 2007, Lochhead started his tenure with promises to "relentlessly" pursue the Scottish fishing interests on behalf of fishermen and their communities. Lochhead was re-elected at the 2011 election with a further increased majority of 10,944.