Richard Lochhead represents the Moray Constituency as a Scottish National Party (SNP) MSP in The Scottish Parliament and is also the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment in the Scottish Government.

Richard attended Williamwood High School in Clarkston and Central College of Commerce in Glasgow before graduating in Politics from the University of Stirling. Before entering Parliament Richard worked as Office Manager for Alex Salmond MP, before becoming an economic development officer for Dundee City Council.

In 1999 Richard was elected to the Scottish Parliament as a North East MSP, and re-elected in 2003. Following the sad death of Margaret Ewing MSP he stood down from his regional seat to fight and win the Moray constituency by-election in 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.

Richard is married to Fiona and lives in Elgin with their two young sons and in his spare time enjoys reading history and fiction, cycling, cinema and holidaying around Scotland when time allows.