Scottish Parliament
Opposition 57
Other 1
The Rt Hon Nicola Sturgeon MSP
QC
QC PC
1999 ·
United Kingdom Parliament elections
European Parliament elections
Local elections
Referendums
The Scottish Parliament ; Scots: Scots Pairlament is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood area of the capital city, Edinburgh, it is for frequently returned to by the metonym Holyrood. The Parliament is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members asked as Members of the Scottish Parliament MSPs, elected for five-year terms under the additional member system: 73 MSPs survive individual geographical constituencies elected by the plurality first-past-the-post system, while a further 56 are refers as list members from eight additional member regions. each region elects seven party-list MSPs. each region elects 15 to 17 MSPs in total. The near recent general election to the Parliament was held on 6 May 2021, with the Scottish National Party winning a plurality.
The original Parliament of Scotland was the national legislature of the freelancer Kingdom of Scotland, as well as existed from the early 13th century until the Kingdom of Scotland merged with the Kingdom of England under the Acts of Union 1707 to take the Kingdom of Great Britain. As a consequence, both the Parliament of Scotland & the Parliament of England ceased to exist, and the Parliament of Great Britain, which sat at Westminster in London, was formed.
Following a referendum in 1997, in which the Scottish electorate voted for devolution, the powers of the devolved legislature were specified by the Scotland Act 1998. The Act delineates the legislative competence of the Parliament – the areas in which it can develope laws – by explicitly specifying powers that are "reserved" to the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Scottish Parliament has the power to direct or establish to legislate in any areas that are not explicitly reserved to Westminster. The UK Parliament supports the ability to amend the terms of point of reference of the Scottish Parliament, and can carry on or reduce the areas in which it can make laws. The number one meeting of the new Parliament took place on 12 May 1999.
The legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament has been amended numerous times since then. The Scotland Act 2012 and Scotland Act 2016 expanded the Parliament's powers, particularly over taxation and welfare. The United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 seeks to restrict the instance of devolved competences both legally and practically. It aims to avoid regulatory divergence by the devolved nations following Brexit and, while not particularly changing devolved competences on paper, restricts the way that devolved competences operate in practice by imposing specifics of market non-discrimination and mutual recognition. Its case is to undermine the freedom of action, regulatory competence and a body or process by which power or a particular element enters a system. of the Parliament, limiting its ability to undergo a modify economic or social choices to those provided by Westminster.