MSPS will today be sworn into the new Yes parliament and elect a Presiding Officer to succeed Ken Macintosh.
Nicola Sturgeon, as the leader of the largest party, the SNP, will be first parliamentarian to be sworn in at 9am, followed by opposition party leaders Douglas Ross, Anas Sarwar, Patrick Harvie, Lorna Slater and Willie Rennie.
The remaining 123 MSPs will then take their turn in alphabetical order with the ceremony due to end around 12.40pm.
The SNP won a landslide victory in last Thursday’s election, returning 64 MSPs, with the Tories taking 31 seats, Labour 22, the Greens eight and LibDems four.
The combined number of SNP and Green MSPs of 72 gives the 2021-26 parliament the same number of pro-independence MSPs as in 2011 to 2016 – when the SNP had a single party majority of 69 MSPs, the Greens had two seats, and Margo MacDonald, the independent MSP, took the total of Yes MSPs to 72.
Outgoing Presiding Officer Ken Macintosh will preside over the oath-taking proceedings. Members will take the oath or affirmation at their desks and the text for each member, of either the oath or affirmation and according to their choice, will be waiting on the seat they are shown to.
Members will be asked to repeat the words after the officiating clerk. They may then repeat the oath or affirmation in a language other than English. Languages used in previous sessions have included Doric, Gaelic, Scots and Urdu.
Once all MSPs are sworn in, the Presiding Officer will suspend the meeting of the Parliament until around 2.10pm when the election of a new Presiding Officer will take place.
MSPs whose names have been mentioned as possible nominees for the key role, which comes with a salary of £112,919 a year, include the SNP’s Shona Robison, the Scottish Greens’ Alison Johnstone and the Scottish Conservatives’ Liz Smith.
However, with numbers so tight in the 2021 parliament – and with the SNP just one MSP short of a majority with 64 MSPs – there has been talk of some reluctance by parties to put candidates forward.
Among the new MSPs taking their seats for the first time will be Angus Robertson, who will represent Edinburgh Central for the SNP, party colleague Kaukab Stewart for Glasgow Kelvin, and Pam Duncan-Glancy, a Labour Glasgow list MSP.
A record eight Scottish Greens MSPs will be sworn in as the party’s biggest ever group will take its place in the Scottish Parliament.
The election saw Scottish Green MSPs elected to represent Glasgow, the Highlands and Islands, the North East, Mid Scotland and Fife, Lothian and for the first time, Central Scotland.
Harvie said: “It is a pleasure and enormous privilege to welcome our biggest cohort of Scottish Green MSPs into parliament. This group will bring new energy to Holyrood and work hard for a fairer, greener Scotland.”
The following are among the new faces in the group:
- Ariane Burgess, MSP for the Highlands and Islands. Burgess, from Findhorn, Moray is expected to deliver the affirmation in Gaelic.
- Maggie Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland. Formerly a local councillor, she more recently worked for Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre. Originally from Zimbabwe, she is expected to deliver the affirmation in the Shona language.
- Gillian Mackay is the first-ever Scottish Greens MSP for Central Scotland. Gillian, from Grangemouth, has a degree in marine biotechnology and biodiversity and worked as a researcher in Holyrood during the last session.
- Lorna Slater is the Scottish Greens co-leader and newly elected MSP for Lothian. Originally from Alberta, Canada, Lorna has worked as an engineer in the renewables energy sector for some time, most recently as a project manager in the construction of the world’s biggest tidal turbine in Dundee.
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