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.

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.

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.

Petitions submitted to the Scottish Parliament are considered by the Public Petitions Committee, which decides whether they are admissible and what action should be taken. All committees cease to exist when the Parliament is dissolved. It is not possible therefore for new petitions or new e-petitions to be formally lodged until the new parliamentary session begins after the election.

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.)

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.

Hansard is the name used for the Official Report of proceedings in the UK Parliament that provides a full written record of what is said in Parliament, as well as Written Ministerial Statements and Written Answers.

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

Official Reports of meetings of the Parliament are in the Official Report section of the website. Official Reports of committee meetings appear on the pages of the relevant committee in the Committees section of the website.

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.

You can find full details of a committee’s membership and remit by clicking on the name of the relevant committee within the committee section of our website.

A list of all current committee members that you can download or print out can be found in the fact sheets on our website.

If you would like to find out which committee(s) an individual MSP sits on, click on the MSP’s name in the Current Members section of the website. Each MSP’s pages contain details of committee membership, as well as other biographical information.

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 around 21.00 on the day of the meeting and on paper by 08.00 the day after the debate has taken place.)

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 Current Bills section on the website lists all bills that are currently in progress. You can access information about an individual bill's progress by clicking on the name of the bill on this page. Details of the current status of each bill can be found in Section J of the Business Bulletin.

A summary of all the bills considered by the Scottish Parliament in the current session and in the previous sessions can be found in the Parliamentary Business series of fact sheets on our website, under the title 'Scottish Parliament Legislation'. (Lists of bills from Session 1 and Session 2 are in the Parliamentary Business: Historical Series.)

• 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

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 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). Two days before a bill will be considered in committee, the clerks prepare a Marshalled List of amendments, which is posted on the bill’s web page.
• Stage 3 - final consideration of the bill by the Parliament and a decision whether it should be passed or rejected.

After a bill has been passed and received royal assent, it becomes an Act of the Scottish Parliament and appears on the website of the Office of Public Sector Information.

Not all the provisions of the Act will necessarily commence (come into force) with royal assent. The Act may state when provisions 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 Government.

Detailed information on the legislative process can be found in the Parliament’s Standing Orders.

The Parliamentary Bureau is responsible for proposing the allocation of time in the Chamber. The Scottish Government party (or parties) gets most of the debating time. However, the Parliamentary Bureau has to ensure that on 16 half sitting days in each parliamentary year priority is given to business chosen by the Opposition parties and groups, and on 12 half sitting days in each parliamentary year priority is given to business chosen by the Parliament’s committees. (Parliamentary business days are divided into morning and afternoon sessions, each of which makes up a half sitting day.) Debating time is allocated to the Opposition parties and groups broadly in proportion to the number of seats they hold in the Parliament.

In addition, the Parliamentary Bureau has to make sure that enough time is set aside for the First Minister to make statements to a meeting of the Parliament. For example, the First Minister periodically makes a statement on the Government's legislative programme, setting out the bills that it plans to introduce. The Parliamentary Bureau also ensures that time is provided, as required, for other ministerial statements, for discussions in relation to the budget process and for oral questions.

The length of time taken for a bill to go through the Parliament varies, as each bill is treated as an individual case.

The Parliamentary Bureau proposes timescales for the completion of the different stages of each bill. These proposals are put forward in business motions and have to be agreed at a meeting of the Parliament. Once agreed, the details are noted on the Current Bills Tracker.

A parliamentary session in the Scottish Parliament is the period from the date of the first meeting of the Parliament following a general election until the Parliament is dissolved. This period is normally just under four years, unless there is an extraordinary general election. This terminology contrasts with that of the UK Parliament. In the UK Parliament, a session is the word used to describe the parliamentary year that usually runs for the 12 months from November to November, while the Westminster equivalent of a Scottish Parliament session is called a Parliament.

If a bill is still in progress through the Scottish Parliament, you can express your concerns about it and attempt to change its provisions. There are various points at which you can do this. When and how you do this depends on the type of bill.

Information on how to contribute to the process of scrutinising and amending bills introduced by the Scottish Government (which are known as Executive bills) is available in Amendments to Executive Bills: Guidance on the website. The Scottish Government is responsible for most of the bills introduced to the Parliament. Other types of public bill, such as committee bills and members' bills, follow procedures similar to those for Executive bills.

Information on how to object to a private bill is available in Information for Objectors to Private Bills. Details of the procedures for scrutinising private bills are available in the Guidance on Private Bills in the Parliamentary Procedure 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.

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.

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.

The main functions of the Parliament are:

• to hold the Scottish Government 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;
• to debate important topical issues; and
• 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 three pence in the pound.

• 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 and continues in operation.) 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.

Dissolution is the official term for the end of a parliamentary session. It occurs before elections to the Scottish Parliament take place, as the seats of the existing MSPs must be vacated prior to being contested in the election.

Time for Reflection, at which a speaker addresses the meeting of the Parliament for up to four minutes, is normally held in the Chamber as the first item of business each week (usually on Wednesday afternoon).

Invitations to speak are issued by the Presiding Officer on advice from the Parliamentary Bureau. The pattern of speakers reflects the balance of faiths in Scotland, based on the Census. Over the course of a year, the aim is to ensure that those invited are representative of the religious beliefs of the people of Scotland, with a number of slots reserved for individuals who do not represent any particular faith. A list of contributors to Time for Reflection can be found in the fact sheets on the website.

Nominations for contributors are usually proposed to the Presiding Officer by MSPs or by the religions or faiths directly, but it is also possible for individuals to write to the Presiding Officer with a nomination.

The Parliamentary Bureau has issued guidance notes for those invited to lead Time for Reflection.

The activities of Cross-Party Groups (CPGs) are frozen during dissolution because there are no MSPs, and they are not able to meet or conduct business without at least two MSPs who are members of the group being present at each meeting.

If they wish to continue after the election, existing CPGs will have to re-register within 90 days of the first meeting of the Parliament. Those that do not re-register within this time will automatically cease to exist.

All outstanding motions and amendments to motions fall when the Parliament is dissolved. Once they have taken the oath or made the affirmation, however, any MSP will be entitled to lodge motions in the new session that are the same or similar to those lodged during the previous session.

Petitions lodged in the present session that the Parliament has not finished considering by the start of dissolution do not fall. E-petitions that have been lodged before dissolution will remain on the website and can continue to gather support and comments. As parliamentary business is suspended during dissolution, however, consideration of petitions will start again only when the new session begins.

Some statutory instruments can still be made (that is, signed by a Scottish Minister) when the Parliament is dissolved, but such instruments cannot be laid before the Parliament until after the election.

All parliamentary scrutiny is suspended during the dissolution period. This means that some instruments laid in the present session may be subject to continued scrutiny when the new session starts after the election.

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.

A parliamentary year is a period, normally of 12 months, beginning on the date of the first meeting of the Parliament following a general election and on each subsequent anniversary of that date within the parliamentary session.

The session is divided into parliamentary years for the purpose of arranging parliamentary business.

A private bill is one introduced by a promoter. The promoter can be an individual, a company or a group of people who is seeking to obtain particular powers or benefits that are in addition to, or in conflict with, the general law. Private bills generally relate to development projects, the use of land, or the property or status of the promoter.

More information about private bills is available in the Parliamentary Business section of our website.

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.

A recess is a non-sitting period when the Parliament is not dissolved but is not holding committee meetings or plenary meetings in the Chamber for a particular length of time. The dates of recesses are decided by the Parliament on a motion from the Parliamentary Bureau and take account of Scottish school holidays.

Recess dates are listed at the bottom of the Parliamentary Business page on the website.

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. It contains information on forthcoming meetings of the Parliament and committees, a list of oral and written questions, current motions, bills, laid papers and committee reports, petitions and information on the progress of legislation. You can find current and previous Business Bulletins in the Parliamentary Business section of the website.

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

Official Reports of meetings of the Parliament are in the Official Report section of the website. Official Reports of committee meetings appear on the pages of the relevant committee in the Committees section of the website.

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.

The Scottish Parliament’s Standing Orders – the rules that govern how it conducts its business – are available in the Parliamentary Procedure section of the 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.

• The full text of all Acts of the Scottish Parliament is published electronically on the website of the Office of Public Sector Information
.
• Paper copies of Acts of the Scottish Parliament can be purchased through Blackwell's Bookshops.
• You can consult Acts of the Scottish Parliament electronically in the 80 partner libraries around the country. Some partner libraries may also hold printed copies of Acts.

Bills can be introduced to the Parliament by different means:

• Executive bills are introduced by a member of the Scottish Government.
• 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 can be introduced by any MSP who is not a member of the Scottish Government.
• Private bills are introduced by a promoter, who is an individual or a body seeking to obtain particular powers or benefits that are in addition to, or in conflict with, the general law.

The Parliament’s programme of business is proposed by the Parliamentary Bureau in the form of a business motion. This business motion sets out the proposed programme of business at meetings of the Parliament for a specified period (usually two weeks). This business motion has to be agreed at a meeting of the Parliament and any changes to it also require the agreement of the Parliament. Once it has been agreed by the Parliament, the business programme is published in Section B of the Business Bulletin.

The Scottish Parliament is a single-chamber legislature in which the committees play an important role in considering and revising proposals for new laws.

Under the rules set out in the Standing Orders, most committees in the Scottish Parliament should have between five and 15 MSPs as members. (The current mandatory and subject committees generally have around eight members.) They carry out detailed scrutiny of bills, consider subordinate legislation and European legislation that fall within their remit, conduct inquiries, examine public petitions and hold the Scottish Government to account by examining its spending plans and questioning Cabinet Secretaries and Ministers. Scottish Parliament committees also have the power to propose new laws by introducing a committee bill.

For more information, see The Work of Committees in the Scottish Parliament.