Scottish Parliament Election 2026: Results, next steps and what it could mean for culture
It's the start of a new week after the Scottish Parliament election. Holyrood's political make up for the next five years has been determined, and over the coming weeks a number of processes will be taking place to get the seventh session of the Scottish Parliament fully up and running.
We’ve written this blog to provide further information on the election results, what the next steps are in terms of the formation of a new Government and Parliament, and the key considerations for Culture Counts and the wider sector. On the formation of the new Parliament, over the next week, the Scottish Parliament Information Centre are planning a series of blogs covering a number of these areas in further detail.
We're hosting an event on 2 June to look at these questions in detail - find out more and book your place here.
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The Scottish National Party are returning as the largest party, but with fewer seats than in 2021 - 58 instead of 64. Despite the smaller MSP cohort, they remain by far the largest party meaning they will likely form the next government. What remains to be seen is whether this will be as a minority, working with opposition parties on a vote-by-vote basis, or whether some sort of formal agreement will be reached with another party.
The Conservatives were the biggest losers, falling from 31 to 12 seats. Labour also lost seats, going from 22 to 17. The Greens and Lib Dems both made gains, from 8 to 15 and 4 to 10 respectively, and Reform enter parliament for the first time with 17 seats. Labour and Reform are tied for second place, and therefore as the main parties of opposition.
This Parliament will see significant change in membership. At the end of Session 6, a record 42 MSPs chose not to seek re-election. In total, 64 MSPs entering Parliament on Thursday will be doing so for the first time, representing almost half of the total of 129 MSPs.
The Scottish Parliament Information Centre has published a useful analysis of the results, and the Scottish Parliament MSP finder tool allows users to search for the new and returning MSPs in their area.
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The parliament meets for the first time and MSPs are sworn in on Thursday 14 May. After that, MSPs elect a Presiding Officer and Deputy Presiding Officers, who oversee the running of the parliament (More on the PO and DPO roles here). Then comes the election of a First Minister. Being the leader of the largest returning party does not automatically make you First Minister. MSPs need to nominate and then vote on candidates for the role (more info on that process here). In reality, it is highly likely that John Swinney will be re-elected as First Minister, and this is expected to happen on 19 or 20 May.
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After the First Minister is elected, the process of forming a new Government and allocating Ministerial portfolios begins. The start of a new parliamentary session is something of an opportunity for a reset - the shape of the new Cabinet is not predetermined, so every portfolio could be up for reconsideration.
The Scottish Government is made up of two types of Ministers: Cabinet Secretaries, who hold senior portfolio responsibilities and sit around the Cabinet table, and Junior Ministers, who support Cabinet Secretaries with specific areas of their portfolio. Junior ministerial roles can allow for a more focused approach to a specific area within a broader portfolio, but the level at which a policy area sits within Government can also be a signal of how highly it is prioritised. A policy area held at Cabinet Secretary level could be said to carry greater weight and visibility within Government, which may be reflected in the resource and attention it receives.
While some continuity exists among returning Ministers, a number of senior figures from the last session stood down or were not returned. This means that the extent of any reorganisation is difficult to predict.
Following previous elections, incoming First Ministers have tended to move quickly to announce the new Cabinet, likely within days of being confirmed. We would expect to see members of the new Government appointed by 25 May at the latest.
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The Parliamentary Bureau is established automatically at the start of each session under the Parliament's Standing Orders. It consists of the Presiding Officer and a representative of each political party with five or more MSPs, nominated by the leader of that party within Parliament. Its role includes proposing the establishment of committees and their respective remits and memberships, and it normally meets weekly on a Tuesday morning. The governing party is normally represented on the Bureau by the Minister for Parliamentary Business, while other parties are represented by their own nominees.
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Opposition parties will also be organising themselves in the weeks ahead. There is no formal parliamentary process for appointing opposition spokespeople and shadow cabinets - these are decisions for each party internally - but in practice they tend to follow once the new Government's Cabinet is confirmed, so that opposition portfolios can be structured in response to it. Once in place, opposition spokespeople play an important role in committee membership and in holding the Government to account on specific policy areas.
Not all parties will organise themselves in the same way. Larger parties may structure their spokespeople to broadly mirror the Government's portfolio structure, while smaller parties, with fewer MSPs, may cover a wider range of areas through a single spokesperson, or organise themselves around their own areas of focus and expertise. With six parties now represented in the Parliament, the range of approaches is likely to be wider than in previous sessions.
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Once the new Government is confirmed, the process of establishing parliamentary committees begins. Committees are smaller groups of MSPs, who meet on a regular basis to scrutinise the work of the Scottish Government, conduct inquiries into subjects within their remit and examine legislation. It would be fair to say that much of the everyday work of the Scottish Parliament is undertaken by these committees.
There are three types of committee:
Mandatory Committees, the subject of which are fixed by the Parliament's Standing Orders and exist regardless of how the Government is structured. These include Finance, Public Audit, Europe and External Relations, Equalities and Human Rights, Public Petitions and Delegated Powers and Law Reform.
Subject Committees are typically established at the start of a new session and scrutinise specific policy areas. These can also be formed mid-session as need arises - the Covid-19 Recovery committee, disbanded in June 2023 being a recent example.
The third type are committees established for a specific purpose or piece of legislation, such as private or hybrid bill committees. These are time-limited and disband once their work is complete.
In practice, committees often combine subject and mandatory functions. The Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee in the last session, for example, combined a subject committee function on Culture, with Europe and External Affairs, being mandatory responsibilities.
The number of committees, their names and remits are proposed by the Parliamentary Bureau and agreed by a vote of the full Parliament. A crucial consideration in that process is the shape of the new Government's portfolio structure. How the Government organises its ministerial responsibilities is an expression of its priorities. Committee remits will be designed to reflect that, so that Parliamentary scrutiny is effective. The decisions made about Ministerial portfolios in the coming weeks will therefore directly shape how scrutiny is organised for the rest of the session.
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The new Parliament and its committees can decide whether to continue inquiries from the previous session or start fresh ones. Similarly, bills that did not complete their passage before dissolution of Parliament can be reintroduced. On that front, one significant piece of unfinished business is the Human Rights Bill, which the Scottish Government had committed to introducing in the last session but ultimately did not. The Bill would incorporate four UN human rights treaties into Scots law, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which includes the right to take part in cultural life. Ministers have previously committed to introducing the Bill in the next Parliamentary session, and there are some indications that they may move quickly to do so.
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The new Parliament reconvenes with a relatively short window of around six weeks before summer recess, which is likely to run from late June until late August. In that time, the focus will largely be on the above, putting the machinery of Parliament and Government in place.
When Parliament reconvenes in the autumn, attention will turn to the Programme for Government. Published at the start of each Parliamentary year, typically in September, the Programme for Government sets out the Government's priorities and legislative agenda for the year ahead. The first Programme for Government of a new session carries particular weight - it is the clearest early signal of what the new Government intends to do, and for sectors like culture, it will indicate whether commitments made during the election campaign are being translated into action. It will also set the agenda for the new committees as they get properly up and running, shaping the scrutiny work they will take forward for the rest of the session.
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The rules around cross-party groups(CPGs) changed in Session 6 and take effect from Session 7. Previously established groups now have 120 days from the first meeting of the new Parliament to re-register, though recess days do not count toward that clock, meaning the effective deadline is around the end of October.
The 120-day window is also the period in which CPG organisers need to reconnect with MSPs who supported the group in Session 6 and were returned, while building relationships with newly elected MSPs who will be unfamiliar with the group's work. A new cap limiting MSPs to membership of a maximum of 10 CPGs makes this more pressing - competition for MSP involvement will be greater than in previous sessions.
For new CPGs, the membership requirements are the same - at least 5 MSPs drawn from more than one party, with 2 MSP office bearers - but new groups go through a fuller approval process and are not subject to the same 120-day deadline. They can be established at any point during the session.
This is something we will be working through ourselves in relation to the future of the CPG on Culture and Communities.
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One significant electoral outcome for Culture is that it did not return former Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture, Angus Robertson. This means that the culture brief will definitely be held by someone new, but there is a further question as to whether culture will continue to be represented at Cabinet Secretary level or fall to a Junior Ministerial position.
The level at which culture sits within government has a direct bearing on how Parliament organises its scrutiny of decisions and policy relating to the sector - if culture is held within a Cabinet Secretary portfolio, it is more likely to command a dedicated committee remit and the annual scrutiny that comes with it. If it is delegated to a Junior Minister within a broader portfolio, that visibility and the parliamentary accountability may be reduced.
Culture Counts' view is that the continuation of culture at Cabinet Secretary level, and its prominent reflection within parliamentary committee structures, is essential.
In recent years, the positioning of culture within Government and Parliament has informed the sector's ability to weather significant difficulties. Serious Parliamentary and Government attention during the pandemic and the sustained economic pressures that followed were essential in how those challenges were met.
Across the parties, there has been a growing shared ambition for culture in Scotland, reflected in the work of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee, which in recent Parliamentary sessions became an annual fixture for scrutiny of culture spending, alongside inquiries into culture in communities, broadcasting, fiscal events including spending reviews, and the place and treatment of artists within the funding system.
There is a great deal at stake for culture in this Parliament. Unfinished business from the last session includes the outcomes of significant reviews and processes – among them the Fair Work Taskforce and the Creative Scotland review – as well as a wide range of manifesto commitments, many of which have seen broad cross-party recognition. Continued prominent representation within Government, and effective scrutiny by Parliament, will be vital to seeing those through.
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Over the coming months, we'll be focused on engaging across both Government and Parliament as they take shape. Our immediate priority is making the case for culture to be retained at Cabinet Secretary level, and we will seek to engage with the First Minister and officials on this at the appropriate time.
At the same time, we will be connecting with MSPs across all parties as the Parliament establishes itself. The summer recess will be an important window for that work.
We will continue to provide updates and information as key appointments and milestones are reached, alongside resources on engaging with elected members and the processes of the new Parliament.
On 2 June we are hosting an event to discuss all of this in more depth. You can book your place here.