A small number of public parking spaces are reserved for disabled people near the Parliament building, on Horse Wynd. (Please note that these parking bays are for visitors to the Holyrood area in general, not just for visitors to the Parliament.)

There is no public car park at the Scottish Parliament building, but information about the nearest public car parks is available in the Visiting Holyrood section of the website under the heading Getting to Holyrood by road.

Someone who is not an MSP can introduce a private bill, but the purpose of such a bill is limited. The purpose of a private bill is to obtain for the individual or corporation proposing it specific powers that go beyond or conflict with the general law. A member of the public cannot introduce a bill to change the general law that applies across Scotland, for example, concerning health, education or housing.

For members of the public who wish to see changes to the general law, there are several ways to make their concerns known. These include:

• contacting their MSPs (for example, an MSP could introduce a member’s bill or take the proposal to a committee which might bring forward a committee bill)
• submitting a petition asking the Parliament to amend an existing law or introduce a new law. More information on petitioning the Parliament is available in the document How to submit a public petition.

All meetings of the Parliament in the Debating Chamber and most committee meetings are open to the public. You can find information about attending parliamentary business by looking at the Public Tickets section of the website.

You can normally deliver letters to the Scottish Parliament by hand. If you wish to do so, please take your letters to the garage entrance to the Parliament building, which is at the bottom of Holyrood Road. (A map is available in the Visiting Holyrood section of our website).

At times of increased security, however, we may not be able to accept hand-delivered packages. If you wish to check before coming to the Parliament, please contact the Public Information Service.

Guided tours of the Parliament building run on days when there is no parliamentary business. You can find more information about guided tours in the Visiting Holyrood section of the website.

The Scottish Parliament does not currently accept requests to hold events for commercial purposes. All events that take place at Holyrood must have a key link to the business and priorities of the Parliament and require sponsorship from an MSP, a committee or a Parliament office. More information about events is available on our website.

The Scottish Parliament offers free email updates during weeks when Parliament is sitting, which include information about forthcoming debates and events. To subscribe to this service, complete the online form.

You are welcome to take photographs of the public areas of the building such as the exhibition in the Main Hall. You are also welcome to take photographs of the Debating Chamber from the public galleries when no parliamentary business is taking place.

You are not permitted to film or take photographs during parliamentary business or while you are on a guided tour of the Parliament building.

You can follow all meetings in the Chamber and most committee meetings live on the internet by using our webcast service: http://www.holyrood.tv/. This website also contains some archival material. (Parliamentary proceedings are archived for one calendar month.)

You do not normally have to bring any identification documents in order to get access to the building. During periods of increased security, however, you may need to provide some form of identification. At such times, Visitor Services staff will be able to advise you about what is required.

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”.

The Scottish Parliament’s Education Service produces a range of resources designed to fit in with the curriculum in Scottish primary and secondary schools, as well as materials for teachers and interactive resources on the internet.

Scottish Parliament committees frequently consult the public when conducting inquiries into issues of concern or considering the general principles of a bill at Stage 1. Details of current Scottish Parliament consultations are available on our website.

The Scottish Government also carries out consultation exercises, which allow you to express your opinions on proposals. Information about the Scottish Government's consultation process and details of its current and forthcoming consultations can be found in the Consultations section of the Scottish Government's 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.

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 programme of parliamentary business in the Chamber is normally decided two weeks in advance, although it is subject to change. If you want to find out what is happening in the next two weeks, you can look in Section B of the current Business Bulletin. If you want to find out what is happening in the Parliament today, you can look in Section A of the Business Bulletin. (The Business Bulletin is published on our website each weekday when the Parliament is sitting and at regular intervals when the Parliament is in recess.)

Information about the current business of Scottish Parliament committees can be found on the web pages of each committee. Committee agendas and information about forthcoming committee business are published in Section C of the Business Bulletin. (Committee agendas normally appear two days before the meeting.)

The Advanced Search section of our website can help if you are trying to track down a matter that has been raised in the Parliament. The following points may be of assistance when you are searching:

• You can maximise the efficiency of your search by entering specific terms (for example, “heart disease” rather than “health”) in the Keywords section.
• In the section headed Select area(s) of the site to search, clicking on the box next to “Debates in Chamber” will limit your search to meetings of the full Parliament. For committees, you can limit your search by choosing to search the documents of a specific committee.
• The Questions & Answers Search facility can be used to find the response to any question that received a written answer. You can also use it to search for any written question that has not yet received an answer.
• The Motions Search facility can be used to trace any motion lodged by an MSP. You can use it to find the full text of the motion, its supporters, the date it was lodged and its current status.

• The answers to oral questions that are taken in the Chamber at Question Time are published in the Official Report of the relevant meeting. If you have the reference number for an oral question (e.g. S1O-100) but are uncertain when it may have been considered in the Chamber, you can use the Advanced Search facility on the website to trace the relevant Official Report. In the section headed Keywords, enter the reference number for the question in the 'with the exact phrase' box; and in the section headed 'Select area(s)of the site to search', click on the box next to 'Debates in Chamber' to limit your search to meetings of the full Parliament.
• You can use the Questions & Answers Search facility on our website to find the response to any question that has received a written answer. (Written answers are provided for written questions and for oral questions that are not taken in the Chamber at Question Time.)

Key to references for parliamentary questions
S1 = Session 1, S2 = Session 2, S3 = Session 3
O = an oral question
F = a question lodged for answer by the First Minister
W = a written question

There is a map showing the location of the Parliament building along with advice about how to reach us by rail, bus, car and bicycle on the How to Find Us page in the Visiting Holyrood section of the website.

The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, which came into force on 1 January 2005, entitles any person that requests information held by a Scottish public authority to receive it, unless that information is subject to any of the exemptions contained in the Act. The Scottish Parliament is among the public authorities subject to the Act.

The Parliament already publishes much of the information it creates, mostly on its website, and its Publication Scheme lists all the categories of information it makes available.

Details of our publication scheme and forms for requesting information that is not in the scheme can be found in the Freedom of Information section of our website.

Any group or individual member of the public can submit a petition to the Scottish Parliament's Public Petitions Committee. More information on how to do this is available in the document How to submit a public petition (587KB pdf). The committee will consider how to respond to the petition. There are a number of options open to the Public Petitions Committee including:

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

The staff of the Scottish Parliament are unable to provide legal advice on any matter.

You may find it useful, however, to contact your local Citizens Advice Bureau, which can provide free, impartial advice about a range of matters. The Law Society of Scotland's website, which contains information on various legal matters and a directory of accredited specialists, may also be of help.

We are happy for external bodies to provide a link to the Scottish Parliament website, but we are not normally able to reciprocate. The limited links that we currently carry on our homepage and on our Education Service pages are to other parliaments, political parties represented in the Scottish Parliament and educational organisations or resources.

You can follow all meetings in the Chamber and most committee meetings live on the internet by using our webcast service: http://www.holyrood.tv/.

The programme Holyrood Live normally provides some live coverage of proceedings in the Chamber on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Details can be found in the listings for the BBC.

The Parliament building has been designed to be fully accessible for disabled people. Information that may be useful for visitors with disabilities is available in the Visiting Holyrood section of the website.

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

There is a code of behaviour for visitors that you need to follow. There is no formal dress code, but please note that you are not allowed to display any banners or slogans if you are watching proceedings in the Chamber or at a committee meeting.

There is a self-service café open to the public in the Main Hall, offering soup, sandwiches, hot snacks, scones, cakes and pastries, as well as a range of hot and cold drinks. This café opens when the building opens and closes 30 minutes before the building closes. You can find details of opening times for the building in the Visiting Holyrood section of the website.

A range of images of the Scottish Parliament that can be downloaded are available on our website at Images - Latest. This page also provides information about the conditions under which these images can be used.

If you cannot find a suitable image among the selection on the website, please contact the Public Information Service.

What you are able to do and see when you come to the Parliament will depend on the day of your visit. You can find more information about the options available by looking at the Visiting Holyrood section of the website.

If you have an issue that you want to raise, it is important to make sure that the right person gets to hear about it. The leaflet Who Represents Me? may help you decide who to contact. This publication outlines the roles and responsibilities of the different organisations that influence the lives of people in Scotland and provides useful contact details.

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.