Reshuffle - Who's in and who's out

Alex Salmond has sacked three ministers from the Scottish Government in his first reshuffle since taking power in 2007.

Linda Fabiani, Maureen Watt and Stewart Maxwell are out, and Alex Neil, Keith Brown and Roseanna Cunningham are in, while Mike Russell has been promoted.

The first minister insisted there had been "no failures" in the ministerial team - but some underperformers and high-achievers have been both punished and rewarded.

WHO IS OUT?

As culture minister, Linda Fabiani, approached her job with great enthusiasm.

Her wide-ranging brief included responsibility for Europe, external affairs, architecture, built heritage, Historic Scotland, Lottery funding and Gaelic - which she was learning to speak.

But the Central Scotland MSP got into difficulty when the Scottish Parliament rejected its first piece of government legislation since devolution - a Bill to merge the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen into a new arts body, Creative Scotland.

Despite having the backing of all Holyrood parties, they killed it off, amid accusations that Ms Fabiani was trying to pull the wool over MSPs' eyes on the Bill's financial arrangements.

The Creative Scotland plan has since been resurrected.

A newcomer to parliament in 2006, Maureen Watt first caught the public's attention when she became the first parliamentarian to take her oath of allegiance in Scots - she also crossed her fingers as she was being sworn in as an MSP after the 2007 election.

On paper, the North East Scotland MSP's credentials as a teacher were a perfect match to her ministerial duties.

But she found herself in hot water after saying in a BBC Scotland interview that plans for two hours' activity per week for pupils could include non-curricular activities, such as walking to school.

The Scottish Government was later forced to clarify the comments, stating it was committed to a minimum of two hours, quality PE being offered by schools as part of the curriculum.

As a minister, Stewart Maxwell had to announce that a pledge to abolish the national agency sportscotland would be scrapped.

But ministers went ahead with a controversial clear-out at the top of Scotland's two national sporting agencies, after deciding to merge the boards of sportscotland and the Institute of Sport, whose chairman, broadcaster Dougie Donnelly, hit out at the decision.

The West of Scotland MSP also took some flack from opposition MSPs over an SNP manifesto pledge to introduce a first-time home buyers' grant, which has never seen the light of day.

WHO IS IN?

Mike Russell, former SNP chief executive, and party leadership rival to Alex Salmond, became a minister on his return to parliament in 2007, after losing his seat in the 2003 election.

After faithfully executing his duties in the environment department, Mr Russell has now moved over to culture.

Crucially, though, the post has been beefed up since the Fabiani era, and the South of Scotland MSP will also take on the thorny issue of the constitution.

As the Scottish Government continues to prepare the ground for its independence referendum Bill, Mr Russell's more immediate priority will be preparing a submission for the Calman Commission, set up to review devolution 10 years on.

Seen as a parliamentary bruiser, Alex Neil's high-profile as an SNP spokesman from the backbenches led opposition parties to refer to him as "minister for Newsnight".

The Central Scotland MSP's efforts have now seen him awarded with a bona-fide ministerial role in communities and housing.

Mr Neil has been particularly outspoken on the banking crisis, and notably teamed up with Lib Dem Tavish Scott and independent MSP Margo MacDonald to urge the �12.2bn HBOS takeover, which later went ahead, to be put on hold.

It is all a long way removed from John Swinney's leadership of the SNP, which he beat Mr Neil to win.

After Mr Swinney's resignation from the top job in 2004, Mr Neil ruled out standing again, referring to "public statements made by Alex Salmond" that he would not work with him.

Mr Salmond, who was sitting purely as an MP, told Newsnight Scotland at the time: "I would find it difficult, personally, to serve under anyone who, in my view, had been systematically undermining the leader of the SNP over the last four years."

Keith Brown has gone through a bit of a baptism of fire since beginning his Holyrood career after the last Scottish election.

Not only did he follow in the footsteps of SNP veteran George Reid as MSP for Ochil, he also came under pressure as convener of the parliament's standards committee during its consideration of the Wendy Alexander donations row.

The former marine has now been appointed education minister for schools and skills.

Parliamentary veteran Roseanna Cunningham has landed her first ministerial gig, taking over Mike Russell's environment portfolio.

The Perth MSP, who also stood against Mr Salmond for the SNP leadership, has been serving as convener of the Scottish Parliament's environment committee and held frontbench roles with the SNP when the party was in opposition.

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