The behaviour of MSPs in the Chamber is governed by Chapter 7 of the Parliament’s Standing Orders. MSPs are also required to abide by the Code of Conduct that was initially agreed by the Parliament on 24 February 2000; the latest revision was agreed on 14 March 2007. This sets out what is expected of MSPs in order for them to maintain and strengthen public trust in the Parliament. Complaints that an MSP has breached the Code of Conduct are investigated by the Scottish Parliamentary Standards Commissioner.

Section 9 of the Code of Conduct sets out the areas that do not fall within the remit of the Scottish Parliamentary Standards Commissioner and provides guidance on where such 'Excluded Complaints' should be addressed.

Details of how an MSP voted on an issue in the Chamber is available in the Official Report of that day’s meeting of the Parliament, which also contains the text of what was said during the debate.

Most of the voting takes place at Decision Time and is recorded under that heading in the Official Report.

A list of party spokespersons that you can download or print out is published as a fact sheet on our website.

Although there are no Members once the Parliament has been dissolved, some constituents may have cases that MSPs have already been working on. MSPs can continue with casework that they began before dissolution, as it is recognised that some cases may be urgent because of the issues involved.

Members cannot, however, accept new constituency casework at this time in their capacity as an MSP. Instead, MSPs who are approached by members of the public seeking help during dissolution may choose to deal with the enquiry in their role as a candidate or prospective candidate. This means they should deal with it through their campaign office or party office, in the same way as all other prospective candidates, and they will not be able to draw on any Scottish Parliament resources to assist them.

The business programme agreed by the Parliament establishes the allocation of debating time to the Government, the opposition parties and the committees; it also establishes the subjects that will be debated. The motions for these debates are normally lodged after the business programme has been agreed. MSPs can also lodge amendments to these motions and the Presiding Officer selects which amendments will be debated.

Most of the motions lodged are not intended for debate, but are lodged by MSPs for a variety of reasons such as drawing attention to a particular topic, offering congratulations to an organisation, seeking support for a cause or highlighting a particular event.

Backbench MSPs who wish their motions to be debated indicate that they wish them to be considered for Members’ Business. Motions that are eligible for debate as Members’ Business appear with a hash symbol (#) next to the number of the motion in the Business Bulletin. In order to be eligible for debate as Members' Business, most motions need to have support from at least half the parties or groups represented on the Parliamentary Bureau. As there are currently four parties represented on the Bureau, this means a motion needs support from at least two parties. (The party/group of the person lodging the motion is counted when calculating the level of cross-party support.) It is the Parliamentary Bureau that decides how the Members’ Business slots should be allocated among the various political parties.

Guidance on the criteria that the Parliamentary Bureau will apply in selecting motions to be debated as Members’ Business were published in the Business Bulletin on 9 September 2005.

A list is maintained of all the admissible motions that have been lodged but not yet considered by the Parliament. The Parliamentary Bureau normally removes from this list any motion that has been on it for more than six weeks (excluding recess) unless (a) the motion has the support of at least 30 other MSPs and these supporters came from more than two political parties (b) the motion remains highly topical or (c) a date has been set for it to be considered at a meeting of the Parliament.

MSPs who stand as candidates but are not re-elected will be paid up to and including the date of the election. This is provided for by the Scotland Act 1998.

MSPs who decide to stand down at the election will be paid up to and including the date of dissolution.

Website addresses for each of the political parties represented in the Scottish Parliament can be found in the fact sheet entitled “Contacting political parties currently in the Scottish Parliament”.

If you are interested in a student placement at the Scottish Parliament, you can contact our Personnel Office (jobs@scottish.parliament.uk) for an application pack.

MSPs are responsible for arranging their own student placement programmes and internships. Contact details for political parties and individual members can be found in the fact sheets on our website.

At a Scottish Parliament election each voter has two votes.

With one vote, voters choose between candidates standing in their constituency to elect a constituency MSP. The candidate who receives the largest number of votes in the constituency wins the seat. This voting system is called first-past-the-post. There are 73 constituencies for Scottish Parliament elections.

The other vote is for a political party, or for a candidate standing as an individual, within a larger electoral area known as a region. (A region is formed by grouping together between eight and ten constituencies.) There are eight Scottish Parliament regions and each region has seven additional seats in the Parliament. The MSPs chosen to fill these 56 additional seats are known as regional MSPs. Regional MSPs are allocated seats using a formula which takes into account the number of constituency seats that an individual or party has already won.

More information on this system of voting, called the additional member system, can be found in our publication MSPs and their work.

Information about how an MSP has voted can be obtained by filling in the voting records request form on our website.

Cross-Party Groups provide an opportunity for MSPs of all parties and members of the public and outside organisations to meet and discuss a shared interest in a particular cause or subject. A list of Cross-Party Groups is published on our website. By clicking on the name of a group on this list, you can find out about its purpose, its membership and who you should contact for more information.

Recruitment opportunities within the Scottish Parliament are listed on our website whenever a new position becomes available. They are also advertised in the press. Please note that we are unable to hold notes of interest or CVs.

MSPs are responsible for employing their own researchers and constituency staff, and they have separate arrangements for recruitment. Contact details for political parties and individual members can be found in the fact sheets on our website.

If an MSP has a personal website and has informed the Parliament of the web address, details appear on their biography pages on the Scottish Parliament website. To see if an MSP has a personal website listed, click on "Contact Details" next to the name of the MSP in the Current Members section of the website.

The text of what was said during a debate in the Chamber is available in the Official Report of that day’s meeting of the Parliament. (Official Reports of meetings in the Chamber are published on our website and on paper by 08.00 the day after the debate has taken place.)

There are 129 MSPs in total, comprising 73 constituency MSPs and 56 regional MSPs. The current party political breakdown is given in the fact sheet entitled “MSPs by Party”.

Salaries: The current annual salary for an MSP is £54,093.

Allowances: Details of the Allowances Scheme, the current allowance and expenses rates, and the actual allowances claimed by MSPs can be accessed from the MSPs section of the website.

Statements made by MSPs in the Chamber can be found in the Official Report of the relevant meeting of Parliament. Statements made to a committee can be found in the Official Report of the relevant committee meeting.

A list of ministerial statements made in the Scottish Parliament in the current session and in the previous session can be found in the “Parliamentary Business” series of fact sheets on our website.

Statements made by MSPs representing the Parliament (for example, as Presiding Officer) or a committee (for example, as committee convener) may be found in the news releases.

If an MSP has made a statement outside Parliament and has not been speaking on behalf of the Parliament, it will not be covered anywhere on our website. You could try checking the websites of relevant news organisations or the MSP’s personal website, if he or she has one. 
Any statement made by a Cabinet Secretary or Minister, other than at a meeting of Parliament, should be obtained through the Scottish Government.

If you are looking for a photograph of an individual MSP, you should contact his or her office. Contact details for MSPs are available in the fact sheets on our website.

Requests for photographs of Cabinet Secretaries or Ministers should be addressed to the Scottish Government.

There is no central service within the Scottish Parliament for distributing emails to MSPs. If you wish to email a number of MSPs, you will have to contact them individually. A list of email addresses for all MSPs can be found in the fact sheets on our website.

It is possible to ask our mail room to distribute documents to a number of MSPs. Please place each letter or document in an envelope with the name of the relevant MSP on the outside; you can then post these as a single package. (If you wish to send a document to all MSPs, it is not necessary to put each one in a separate envelope, but please enclose 129 copies.) All such packages should be marked "Documents for distribution" and sent to the address below:

The Mail Room
The Scottish Parliament
Edinburgh
EH99 1SP

Winding Up Allowance: MSPs who do not stand for re-election or who are not re-elected can claim a winding up allowance to enable them to deal with any outstanding parliamentary affairs, such as terminating the lease on their offices. The maximum amount of the winding up allowance is one third of the annual Members' Support Allowance. Like all allowances, payments are made only when valid claims are submitted. More information about Members' allowances is available in the Members' Allowances Scheme.

Resettlement Grant: MSPs who do not stand for re-election or who are not re-elected receive a resettlement grant that is calculated as a percentage of their annual salary.

This percentage is calculated in relation to (a) the person's age at the dissolution and (b) the number of completed years of his/her service as an MSP before the dissolution.

Details of these arrangements can be found in the Scotland Act 1998 (Transitory and Transitional Provisions) (Grants to Members and Officeholders) Order 1999 (Statutory Instrument 1999/1081).

Pensions: Under the terms of the Scotland Act 1998 (Transitory and Transitional Provisions) (Scottish Parliamentary Pension Scheme) Order 1999 (Statutory Instrument 1999/1082), the pension payable to an MSP is calculated in relation to the MSP's salary and the number of years in service, in accordance with the following formula: (average salary over the last 12 months of service) X (total number of years' reckonable service) divided by 50.

There is no minimum time that an MSP has to serve before being entitled to a pension. The pension is normally payable from the age of 65 for the rest of the MSP's life, although he/she can apply for an early pension on the grounds of ill health.

The First Minister and Presiding Officer receive an annual pension equal to half the salary payable for that post at the date on which they ceased to hold office. This pension is payable immediately on leaving office and for the rest of his/her life, and the arrangements for the pension apply regardless of how long the person has held the post of First Minister or Presiding Officer.

Under the terms of the Scotland Act 1998 (Transitory and Transitional Provisions) (Scottish Parliamentary Pension Scheme) Order 1999 (Statutory Instrument 1999/1082), the pension payable to an MSP is calculated in relation to the MSP's salary and the number of years in service, in accordance with the following formula: (average salary over the last 12 months of service) X (total number of years’ reckonable service) divided by 50.

Members contribute 6 per cent of their salary towards the pension fund.

There is no minimum time that an MSP has to serve before being entitled to a pension, and the pension is normally payable from the age of 65 for the rest of his/her life.

A written question is one lodged by an MSP which is specified as being for written answer by a member of the Scottish Executive (the Scottish Government) or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body.

Written questions are published in Section E of the Business Bulletin. Answers are provided in writing and published in the Written Answers Report. All admissible written questions will receive an answer.

All questions selected for a Question Time slot that are not answered orally in the Chamber will receive a written answer, which will be published in the Written Answers report.

• General Question Time and Themed Question Time: This is the time in the Chamber each week (normally on Thursdays) when MSPs ask questions of the Cabinet Secretaries and Ministers. There is one period of time set aside for general questions and another set aside for questions on specified themes such as justice and health and wellbeing. The themes vary each week on a rota basis. (The rota for the period from 6 December 2007 was published in the Business Bulletin on 15 November 2007.) Members who wish to lodge a themed or general question submit their names for selection. Names are chosen at random by computer. Successful members then submit their questions, which are published in Section D of the Business Bulletin, normally one week before they will be asked in the Chamber.
• First Minister’s Question Time: This is the period of up to 30 minutes each week (normally starting at noon on Thursdays) when MSPs ask questions of the First Minister in the Chamber. Six questions are selected by the Presiding Officer, and these are published in Section D of the Business Bulletin, normally on the Tuesday before they will be asked in the Chamber.
• SPCB Question Time: This is a period of up to 15 minutes at a meeting of the Parliament when MSPs put questions to members of the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body on the provision of staff, services and facilities at Holyrood. Questions are selected at random by computer. These sessions take place occasionally.

All questions selected for a Question Time slot that are not answered orally in the Chamber will receive a written answer, which will be published in the Written Answers Report.

Tickets to attend Question Time sessions and First Minister’s Question Time can be reserved through Visitor Services.

MSPs cease to be Members of the Scottish Parliament once Parliament is dissolved. During the period of the dissolution, MSPs and their staff will have only the same access to the building as members of the public. They will be able to use parliamentary facilities such as local offices and equipment in order to deal with on-going constituency casework only. They will not be able to use any parliamentary facilities or resources in connection with canvassing or electioneering.

This is to ensure that all candidates or prospective candidates are treated equally and that candidates who were MSPs or the staff of MSPs before dissolution are not given any advantage over other candidates.

Any MSP who is not a member of the Scottish Government can introduce 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 comments 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 cross-party support from 18 other MSPs during this time, and the Government 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 four-year session. The proposal process for members' bills is outlined in a flow chart.

There is a list of all proposed members' bills on our website. Any inquiries about a proposed member’s bill before its introduction should be directed to the office of the relevant MSP.

A motion is a proposal for the Parliament to do something or express an opinion about an issue, and it is the most common means by which MSPs initiate debates.

Any MSP can lodge a motion, and all admissible motions are published in Section F of the Business Bulletin the following day. Once a motion has been lodged, other MSPs can indicate their support by signing it, and the names of these signatories appear in the Business Bulletin.

Members’ Business is a debate on a motion proposed by an MSP who is not a member of the Scottish Government. Generally the topic discussed relates to a particular region, marks a specific event or highlights an issue of interest to the MSP that might not otherwise receive attention.

Members’ Business normally takes place after Decision Time on Wednesdays and Thursdays and lasts 45 minutes; it concludes without any vote being taken.

There are 129 Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs). MSPs represent their constituents on devolved matters in the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. For more information, see MSPs and their Work.

There are 59 MPs (Members of Parliament) representing Scotland in the House of Commons at Westminster in London. Their role is to represent their constituents on reserved matters.

You should contact your MSP(s) if you wish to raise an issue about a devolved matter and your MP if you wish to raise an issue about a reserved matter. If you are unsure whether a matter is devolved or reserved, contact the Scottish Parliament Public Information Service.

The Parliamentary Bureau consists of the Presiding Officer (who chairs meetings) and MSPs nominated by each of the political parties with five members or more in the Parliament. Individual MSPs or small parties can also join together to form a group of five or more and can nominate a representative to sit on the Parliamentary Bureau.

The Parliamentary Bureau meets regularly, in private, to propose the Parliament’s programme of business for a specified period. Its functions also include proposing the establishment, remit, membership and duration of committees and sub-committees, and the deadlines for completing the stages of bills. The Parliamentary Bureau’s proposals, in the form of motions, are considered and decided at meetings of the Parliament.

More information about the Parliamentary Bureau, and the minutes of its meetings, can be found on our website.

You can find the Written Answers Report in the Parliamentary Questions & Answers section of the website.

The Written Answers Report contains the text of written questions lodged by MSPs and the answers given by members of the Scottish Government, the Presiding Officer and members the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body.

Lists of MSPs that you can download or print out are published as fact sheets on our website.

Results of the 1999 Scottish Parliament elections can be found in the MSPs section of our website

Results of the 2003 Scottish Parliament elections can be found in the MSPs section of our website

Results of the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections can be found in the MSPs section of the website

The results of future Scottish Parliament elections will be made available on our website once the Parliament has been notified of the result by the returning officer.

A document entitled “MSPs not standing or not returned in the 2007 Election” is available among the fact sheets on our website.

Anyone will be able to stand as an MSP in the 2007 election, as long as they are at least 18 and are either:

• a United Kingdom, Commonwealth or Republic of Ireland citizen, or
• an EU citizen resident in the United Kingdom

and are not:

• an undischarged bankrupt
• in a post that is paid by the Crown (such as a civil servant or a police officer)
• a prisoner serving a sentence of over one year in prison
• a person found guilty of certain electoral offences

Information about standing as a candidate in a Scottish Parliament election is available on the VoteScotland website.

Each person in Scotland is represented in the Scottish Parliament by one constituency MSP and seven regional MSPs.

You can use your postcode to find out who your constituency and regional MSPs are. (You can use the Royal Mail postcode finder to check your postcode.) You can access information about each MSP, including contact details, by clicking on his/her name on the results webpage. You can also get a list of your MSPs' names by texting your postcode to 07786209888.