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In a committee meeting, votes can happen at any time. In the Chamber, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ 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 ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ 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 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.

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 ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ to vote from home.

How voting works in the Chamber

In the Chamber the Presiding Officer asks ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ a question. If they do not all agree with the question they will vote.

This question then appears on screens on the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ’ 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 ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ do not all agree with the question, they will vote.

³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ who are members of the committee can answer “yes”, “no” or “abstain”.

Usually the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ 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 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 ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

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 ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ 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:

• 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 ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ and published in the next Business Bulletin.

Business Bulletin

A no confidence motion is a motion that says some ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ do not have confidence in a government minister, the First Minister, or all Scottish ministers.

If the motion gets support from 25 ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ the Parliamentary Bureau schedules it for debate. ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ will discuss the motion in a debate and vote.

If ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ vote to pass a no confidence motion about all Scottish ministers, it could lead to a Scottish Parliament election.