Scottish Parliament

The **Scottish Parliament** (; Scots: _Scottish Pairlament_) is the devolved national legislature of Scotland. It is in the capital city, Edinburgh. The Parliament is sometimes called "**Holyrood**" because it is located next to Holyrood Palace.

## History

The original Parliament of Scotland (or "Estates of Scotland") was the national legislature of the independent Kingdom of Scotland. It existed from the early 13th century until 1707. This was when the Kingdom of Scotland merged with the Kingdom of England under the Acts of Union 1707 to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain.

Because of this, the Parliament of Scotland merged with the Parliament of England to form the Parliament of Great Britain, which sat at Westminster in London. This legislature merged with the Irish Parliament from 1801 to make the current Parliament of the United Kingdom.

In 1997 there was a referendum where the Scottish people voted for Scotland to have a Parliament again. The current Parliament was established by the Scotland Act 1998. The first meeting was on 12 May 1999.

## Powers

The Parliament is a devolved assembly, which means that some powers have been kept by the UK Parliament. The issues which the Scottish Parliament can make laws about are called _devolved matters_. The issues which the UK Parliament must make laws about are called _reserved matters_. Some examples of devolved matters are health and social services, education and housing. Examples of reserved matters are foreign policy, immigration and the constitution of the Scottish Parliament.

## Members

There are 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) who are democratically elected. Members are elected for five-year terms. Most of the MSPs belong to political parties. Independent MSPs do not belong to a political party.

The number of MSPs from each party are:

|colspan="3"|The number of elected MSPs in the parties|||
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|**Party**|**Leader**|valign="top"|**Number of MSPs**|
|Scottish National Party|John Swinney|60||
|Scottish Conservative Party|Russell Findlay|30||
|Scottish Labour Party|Anas Sarwar|23||
|Scottish Green Party|Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater|7||
|Scottish Liberal Democrats|Alex Cole-Hamilton|5||
|Alba|Kenny MacAskill|1||
|Not part of a party (independents)|None|1 (Presiding Officer)||

## Presiding Officer

The Presiding Officer is the Speaker of the Scottish Parliament and chairs the meetings. The Presiding Officer is an MSP elected to the role and cannot be bias towards one party.

### List of Presiding Officers

- David Steel (1999–2003)
- George Reid (2003–2007)
- Alex Fergusson (2007–2011)
- Tricia Marwick (2011–2016)
- Ken Macintosh (2016–2021)
- Alison Johnstone (2021–present)

## References

- Balfour, A & McCrone, G (2005): "Creating a Scottish Parliament", StudioLR,
- Burrows, N (1999): "Unfinished Business - The Scotland Act 1998", Modern Law Review, Vol. 62, No. 2 (March 1999), pp. 241–260
- Centre for Scottish Public Policy (1999): "A Guide to the Scottish Parliament: The Shape of Things to Come", The Stationery Office Books",
- Dardanelli, P (2005): "Between Two Unions: Europeanisation and Scottish Devolution", Manchester University Press,
- Kingdom, J (1999): "Government and Politics in Britain, An Introduction", Polity,
- MacLean, B (2005): "Getting It Together: Scottish Parliament", Luath Press Ltd,
- McFadden, J & Lazarowicz, M (2003): "The Scottish Parliament: An Introduction", LexisNexis UK,
- Murkens, E; Jones, P & Keating, M (2002): "Scottish Independence: A Practical Guide", Edinburgh University Press,
- Taylor, Brian (1999): "The Scottish Parliament", Polygon, Edinburgh,
- Taylor, Brian (2002): "The Scottish Parliament: The Road to Devolution", Edinburgh University Press,
- Young, John R. (1996): "The Scottish Parliament, 1639–1661: A Political and Constitutional," Edinburgh: John Donald Publishers

## Other websites

- Official website
- Scotland Act 1998
- The Scottish Parliament Project, University of St Andrews
- Holyrood Inquiry homepage
- BBC News explanation of the powers of the Scottish Parliament
- History of the Scottish Parliament (pdf)