The relationship between the Scottish Executive and the Scottish Parliament is similar to the relationship between the UK Government and the UK Parliament at Westminster.

The Scottish Parliament is made up of all 129 MSPs (Members of the Scottish Parliament). Like the UK Parliament, the Scottish Parliament passes laws. It also scrutinises the work and policies of the Scottish Executive.

The Scottish Executive is the government in Scotland for all devolved matters. At Devolution, the powers and duties exercised by UK Ministers in Scotland, relating to devolved matters, were transferred to the Scottish Ministers. Most of the responsibilities previously held by the Scottish Office have become part of the remit of the Scottish Executive.

The Scottish Executive is formed from the party or parties holding a majority of seats in the Parliament. The members of the Executive are collectively referred to as 'the Scottish Ministers'. All Ministers are MSPs. This means that they are part of two separate organisations: the Scottish Executive (Ministers) and the Scottish Parliament (MSPs).

There are 129 Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs). MSPs represent their constituents on matters which are devolved to the Scottish Parliament, such as Education, Health and the Environment.

There are 59 MPs representing Scotland in the House of Commons at Westminster. Their role is to represent their constituents on reserved matters which include Defence, Foreign Affairs, National Security and Employment.

You should contact your MSP(s) for devolved matters and your MP for reserved matters. The Scottish Parliament Public Information Service can confirm for you whether a matter is devolved or reserved.

The voting system used by the Scottish Parliament is known as the Additional Member System (AMS). AMS is a type of proportional representation. This means that the share of seats each party receives reflects its level of support among voters.

At a Scottish Parliament election each voter has 2 votes. With the first vote, voters choose between candidates standing in their constituency. The candidate winning the largest number of votes will gain the seat. There are a total of 73 constituency MSPs.

The second vote is for a political party, or for a candidate standing as an individual, within a larger electoral area called a Scottish Parliament Region. There are 8 Scottish Parliament Regions. Each region has 7 additional seats in the Parliament. Within each region, parties are allocated additional seats dependent upon the number of constituency seats it won. The members chosen to fill these 56 additional seats are known as 'regional members'.

Each voter will have one constituency MSP and 7 regional MSPs. All MSPs have equal status in the Parliament.

• Go here for the full results by constituency and by region in 1999
• Go here for the full results by constituency and by region in 2003

Each person in Scotland is represented in the Scottish Parliament by:

• One constituency MSP, for their immediate area, and
• Seven regional MSPs

You can use your postcode to find out details of your constituency and regional MSPs:

Clicking on an MSP's name will bring you to their biography page, which includes full contact details.

If you are not certain of your postcode then you can use the Royal Mail postcode finder.

Details of how MSPs voted, as well as what was said in debates, is available in the Official Report of the Scottish Parliament. Most of the voting takes place not during the time of the debate, but at that day's Decision Time. Decision Time is listed in the contents for each day's Official Report. You may also wish to use the search engine, which has an option for searching just the Official Report.

There are 129 MSPs in total, comprising 73 Constituency MSPs and 56 Regional MSPs.

* Elected as a member of the SNP. George Reid took voluntary suspension from the SNP when he was elected to the post of Presiding Officer.

All the Ministers are members of the Scottish Executive, which is in effect the government of Scotland for devolved matters. It is the Scottish Executive, rather than the Scottish Parliament, which is responsible for the policies promoted by the Ministers. For information regarding Ministers, remits and policies you should contact the Scottish Executive Central Enquiry Unit (Tel: 0131 556 8400), or consult the Scottish Executive website.

Devolution is the transfer of powers from a central body to subordinate regional bodies. The UK Parliament at Westminster has devolved different powers to three bodies: the Scottish Parliament, The National Assembly for Wales and The Northern Ireland Assembly.

The 1998 Scotland Act provided "for the establishment of a Scottish Parliament". Under the terms of the Act, the Scottish Parliament is able to pass laws affecting Scotland covering a range of issues. The Act also gives the Scottish Parliament the power to raise or lower the basic rate of income tax by up to 3 pence in the pound.

What is a devolved matter?

Some of the issues devolved to the Scottish Parliament include Education, Health (including the NHS in Scotland), Agriculture and Justice. All the issues on which the Scottish Parliament can pass legislation are known as " devolved matters ".

What is a reserved matter?

The Scotland Act also specifies certain issues on which the Scottish Parliament cannot pass legislation. These are known as " reserved matters". Reserved matters include Foreign Affairs, Defence and National Security

There are a number of key dates in the creation of the Scottish Parliament. The Referendum held on 11 September 1997 produced clear majorities for the two propositions regarding the creation of a Scottish Parliament with tax varying powers, and gave the UK government a mandate to introduce legislation that would allow for the creation of a Scottish Parliament. The result of this was the Scotland Act 1998, which received Royal Assent on 19 November 1998. The Act provided "for the establishment of a Scottish Parliament", and gave the Secretary of State for Scotland the power to decide the date of the first election.

The first elections to the Scottish Parliament took place on 6 May 1999 and meetings of the Parliament began with the first sitting on 12 May 1999. At this sitting, the MSPs were able to take the oath of allegiance or make a solemn affirmation and to elect the Presiding Officer and two Deputy Presiding Officers. The Parliament was officially opened by the Queen on 1 July 1999 and took up its full powers on this date.

TThe main functions of the Parliament are:

• to hold the Scottish Executive to account through oral and written questions, and through scrutiny of its policies in the committees
• to make laws on devolved matters by examining, amending and voting on Bills. For further information regarding devolved matters please see You and Your MSPs.
• to debate important topical issues (a substantially verbatim account of everything said during meetings of the full Parliament can be found in the Official Report)
• to conduct inquiries and publish reports.

The Scottish Parliament also has the power to raise or lower the basic rate of income tax by up to 3 pence in the pound.

This section provides links to information on Bills and the progress of legislation. More detailed explanation of the procedures can be found in the guidance on Bills.

Bills can be introduced into the Parliament by different means:

• Executive Bills are introduced into the Parliament by a Minister. Consultation documents, draft Executive Bills and the closing dates for the submission of evidence can be found on the Scottish Executive website.
• Committee Bills are introduced by the convener of a committee and may follow a committee inquiry on the need for legislation in a particular area.
• Members' Bills: any MSP who is not a member of the Executive can propose a Member's Bill. A draft proposal is printed in section G of the Business Bulletin for one day. Thereafter, in most cases, a consultation document is issued seeking comment and views. At the end of the consultation period (or after it has been agreed that no consultation is needed), the MSP can lodge a final proposal, which is printed in section G of the Business Bulletin for a month. If this proposal attracts support from 18 other MSPs during this time, and the Executive do not indicate that they will bring forward their own legislation, the member can then introduce a bill to give effect to it at any time during the 4-year session. There is a list of all proposed Members' Bills. Any enquiries about a proposed Member's Bill before its introduction should be directed to the office of the relevant MSP. The proposal process is outlined in a flow chart.
• Private Bills are introduced by a person (other than an MSP) or body ('promoter').

Once a Bill has been introduced, it comes within the domain of the Scottish Parliament. Printed copies can be purchased from The Stationery Office (TSO) or consulted in a Partner Library. Bills also appear in .pdf format on the website. On introduction, Bills must be accompanied by various supporting documents which appear along with the text of the Bill.

The most usual parliamentary process for a Bill consists of three stages:

• Stage 1 - consideration of the general principles of the Bill by parliamentary committee(s), and a debate on these by the Parliament
• Stage 2 - detailed consideration of the Bill by parliamentary committee(s). Before each day that a Bill will be considered in committee, the clerks prepare a Marshalled List of amendments which appears below the Bill
• Stage 3 - final consideration of the Bill by the Parliament and a decision whether it should be passed or rejected. The Bill as amended at Stage 2 and the final Marshalled List of amendments appear on the website or can be purchased from The Stationery Office.

After a Bill has been passed and has received Royal Assent, it becomes an Act of the Scottish Parliament. and appears on the Office of the Queen's Printer for Scotland. Acts can also be purchased from TSO and are usually available within seven days of the Bill receiving Royal Assent.

Not all the provisions of the Act will necessarily commence (come into force) with Royal Assent. The Act may state when it will come into force or that the date (or dates, if different parts are to be brought into force at different times) will be decided by the Scottish Ministers. Enquiries about commencement should be directed to the Scottish Executive.

Anybody can come to see the Parliament. Depending on Parliamentary business, visitors can:

• Attend a debate
• Attend a committee meeting
• Look around the Debating Chamber
• You may also wish to make separate arrangements to meet with an MSP.

The Parliament recess dates are on the Parliamentary Business page. It indicates the dates that the Parliament and committees will not meet. It is important to be aware of these dates if you wish to see a debate or a committee in action.

Recruitment opportunities within the Scottish Parliament are listed on the website whenever a new position becomes available. They are also advertised in the press. MSPs are responsible for employing their own researchers and constituency staff, and have separate arrangements for recruitment - you may wish to contact parties or individual members.

• The Official Report is a substantially verbatim report of what is said by MSPs during business in the Scottish Parliament debating chamber and at its committees.
• Statements made by MSPs representing the Parliament or a committee may be found in news releases
• Anything statement made by a Minister, other than in a meeting of Parliament, should be traced through the Scottish Executive.
• If an MSP has made a statement outide Parliament, then it will not be covered anywhere on the Parliament website. If the MSP has their own website you could check there - website addresses are given on the MSP biography pages, or you could try checking the websites of relevant news organisations.

The programme for parliamentary business (subject to change) is decided one or two weeks in advance. Details of the business programme can be found in Section B of the latest Business Bulletin.

The Business Bulletin is produced on weekdays when the Parliament is sitting, and as some parliamentary business continues though recess, it is produced periodically when the Parliament is not sitting.

The Parliamentary Business page is updated daily with details of any additions to the website.

• The Bills section on the website lists bills currently in progress
• Details of the current status of each bill can be found in Section J of the current Business Bulletin.

Official publications are produced by a number of different bodies:

• Bills currently in progress through the Scottish Parliament, and Parliamentary and Committee Reports are published by the Scottish Parliament, on the Bills page.
• Consultation papers, draft Executive bills and commission reports on devolved matters are published by the Scottish Executive on their publications page.
• Acts of the Scottish and UK Parliaments, and Statutory Instruments are available on the Office of the Queen's Printer website, and UK Acts and Statutory Instruments at the HMSO website.
• Consultation papers for the UK Parliament at Westminster are available from the relevant government department website.

If you would like to find out which MSPs sit on a particular committee, a full membership list can be found by clicking on the committee's name within the committee section.

If you would like to find out which committees an individual MSP sits on, simply click on the MSP's name within the biography section. Each MSP page contains details of committee and cross party group membership, as well as biographical information.

Any member of the public or group can submit a petition to the Parliament's Public Petitions Committee. The Committee will consider how to respond to the petition. There are a number of options open to the Committee including:

• forwarding the petition to another parliamentary body for consideration
• forwarding the petition to an external body e.g. a local authority.

Immigration is a matter reserved to the UK Parliament at Westminster and the power to grant citizenship is the responsibility of the Home Office.

The current Scottish Parliament does not hold any archives relating to previous Scottish Parliaments. These documents are held by the National Archives of Scotland.

We do not hold genealogical information, and are unlikely to be able to help you to trace your ancestors. The best initial point of contact for enquires relating to Scottish ancestors would be the General Register Office for Scotland.

In 1999 The Scottish Parliament endorsed the Report of the Consultative Steering Group on the Scottish Parliament.
(The report was drawn up by a group chaired by Henry McLeish MP, Minister of State in The Scottish Office. Presented to Donald Dewar, Secretary of State for Scotland, in December 1998, it was published by The Stationery Office in 1999.ISBN 0114961255)

The report of the Group set out 4 "key principles": that

• the Scottish Parliament should embody and reflect the sharing of power between the people of Scotland, the legislators and the Scottish Executive;
• the Scottish Executive should be accountable to the Scottish Parliament and the Parliament and Executive should be accountable to the people of Scotland;
• the Scottish Parliament should be accessible, open, responsive and [should] develop procedures which make possible a participative approach to the development, consideration and scrutiny of policy and legislation; and that
• the Scottish Parliament in its operation and its appointments should recognise the need to promote equal opportunities for all. (CSG Report, page 3, paragraph 2).

If MSPs have personal websites, details appear on their biography pages on the Scottish Parliament website. Follow this link to the MSPs' biography pages . Click on “view pages” next to the name of an MSP to open his or her pages, then select “Contact Details”. If the MSP has a website, there will be a link to it on the contact details webpage.

MSPs' personal sites may contain biographical information, details of surgery times and forthcoming meetings in the constituency or region. Please note that the Scottish Parliament is not responsible for the contents of these external websites.

Follow this link to the Written Answers Report webpage.

The Written Answers Report contains the text of written questions lodged by MSPs and the answers given by the Scottish Executive, the Presiding Officer or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. There is also a Questions & Answers Search facility on the website. This can be used to find the response to any question that received a written answer.

The Official Report is the full written report of what is said in public meetings of the Scottish Parliament and its committees. It includes debates, statements, questions, votes and evidence given to committees.

Follow this link for the Official Reports of meetings of the Parliament in the Chamber . Follow this link for the Official Reports of committee meetings.

You can consult the Official Report in the 80 partner libraries around the country, and you can purchase printed copies from Blackwell's Bookshop.

If you are trying to track down so me thing that was said in Parliament, you may wish to use the Advanced Search . Clicking on the box next to “Debates in Chamber” will limit your search to meetings of the full Parliament; and clicking on the “Official Reports” boxes in the committees section will limit your search to committee meetings. (For committees, you can limit your search further by selecting to search the Official Reports of a specific committee.)

For more information you may wish to read our leaflet on the Official Report.