About votes and motions

MSPs raise issues and make decisions on them by submitting motions and taking part in votes.

About votes

A vote is one way MSPs in Parliament make decisions. In the Chamber, a vote is called by the Presiding Officer . In a committee, this is done by the committee convener. To vote, the Presiding Officer or convener will ask MSPs a question. They can answer “yes”, “no” or “abstain”. Abstain means they are not voting yes or no.

Once the question is asked, MSPs in the Chamber usually give their answer by touching a screen, or in a committee by raising their hand.

When do MSPs vote

In a committee meeting, votes can happen at any time. In the Chamber, MSPs usually vote at Decision Time on the issues they have been discussing that day. When they are voting on amendments to Bills, they will vote throughout the meeting.

Some things MSPs vote on include:

changes to Bills
if they agree with a debate
what business Parliament should look at

Decision Time usually happens at 5pm on the days Parliament meets.

The Presiding Officer

The Presiding Officer does not normally vote, but has a deciding vote if there is a tie.

If the vote is for Stage 1 of a Bill, the Presiding Officer will usually vote to allow the Bill to continue to Stage 2.

At other times, the Presiding Officer will usually vote against a motion or amendment.

How do MSPs vote

Votes are either held in the Chamber, or in committee meetings. They work differently in each place.

Following the COVID-19 situation the Parliament made changes to how it worked to allow MSPs to vote from home.

How voting works in the Chamber

In the Chamber the Presiding Officer asks MSPs a question. If they do not all agree with the question they will vote.

This question then appears on screens on the MSPs’ desks. They can answer “yes”, “no” or “abstain”. They normally have 30 seconds to touch the screen to answer. Then the Presiding Officer reads out the results of the vote.

You can see the results of any vote in the minutes of the meeting of Parliament or in the Official Report.

How voting works in committees

In committees, the convener asks the committee a question. If MSPs do not all agree with the question, they will vote.

MSPs who are members of the committee can answer “yes”, “no” or “abstain”.

Usually the MSPs vote by raising their hands. A clerk (a member of Parliament staff) counts the hands, writes the result down and passes the result to the convener to read out.

You can see the results of any vote in the minutes of the committee meeting or in the Official Report.

The Official Report

The Official Report has the results of every vote, and how each MSP voted.

You can also check how each individual MSP voted on their pages.

Go to the Official Report

Find current MSPs

Motions are short statements written by an MSP.

Most motions raise awareness of an issue or recognise a group, business or individual. Other MSPs can support a motion to show they agree with it.

Motions are available for MSPs to support for 6 weeks. After that, MSPs can no longer support the motion but it stays on the Parliament’s website.

Each motion is given its own unique reference so it’s easy to find. All motion references begin with an S (meaning “session”) and then the number of that session. Then they have an M for “motion”. For example, all motions from session 5 begin with “S5M” because this is the 5th session of the Scottish Parliament.

Search votes and motions

Members' Business motions

Some motions can lead to a debate in Parliament, such as Members’ Business motions.

For a motion to be considered for a Members’ Business debate, it must get signatures from MSPs in different political parties. This is called “cross-party support”.

Once a motion has cross-party support, then a group called the Parliamentary Bureau makes the decision on whether the motion should be debated in the Chamber.

The debate will be scheduled by the Parliamentary Bureau for a Members’ Business debate. Members’ Business debates happen on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. There is no rule about how quickly this must happen.

There are no limits to the amount of these motions that can be submitted, but not all will get enough required support, or be picked for a debate.

Business motions

Business motions:

give an outline of proposed business in the Chamber
suggest timeframes for stages of Bills

Proposed business motions are discussed by the Parliamentary Bureau and are normally made by the Minister for Parliamentary Business and Veterans. They are agreed by MSPs and published in the next Business Bulletin.

Business Bulletin

No confidence motions

A no confidence motion is a motion that says some MSPs do not have confidence in a government minister, the First Minister, or all Scottish ministers.

If the motion gets support from 25 MSPs the Parliamentary Bureau schedules it for debate. MSPs will discuss the motion in a debate and vote.

If MSPs vote to pass a no confidence motion about all Scottish ministers, it could lead to a Scottish Parliament election.