The 2026 Holyrood election is on 7 May 2026, the same day as the Senedd election in Wales and English local elections. The Scottish Parliament formally dissolved on 9 April 2026.Source: Scottish Parliament dissolution announcement

How does the Scottish Parliament voting system work?

Scottish Parliament elections use the Additional Member System: voters cast two ballots, one for a local constituency MSP under first-past-the-post, and one for a regional party list. The 129 seats are split between 73 constituencies and 56 regional list seats.Source: Electoral Commission Scotland

Why did Holyrood cost £414 million when it was budgeted at £40 million?

The original 1997 estimate of £40 million was revised repeatedly during construction due to design changes, complexity of the site and the ambitious architecture by Enric Miralles. The Holyrood Inquiry in 2004 attributed the overrun to poor initial cost planning and scope changes.Source: Holyrood Inquiry 2004

Background

Holyrood refers to the Scottish Parliament building on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, opened in 2004 after a construction project that overran from an initial estimate of £40 million to a final cost of £414 million. Designed by Enric Miralles, the building is named after the adjacent Holyrood Palace. It houses the 129-seat chamber of the Scottish Parliament, established by the Scotland Act 1998 following the 1997 devolution referendum. The term Holyrood is used as a metonym for the Scottish Parliament as an institution, in the same way Westminster refers to the UK Parliament. Elections use the Additional Member System (AMS): voters cast two ballots, one for a constituency MSP under first-past-the-post and one for a regional party list.

The 7 May 2026 Holyrood election transformed the chamber's political composition. The SNP won 58 seats (down from 64 in 2021), Labour won 17, Reform UK won 17 — the first hard-right populist caucus in Scottish Parliament history — the Scottish Greens won 12, the Liberal Democrats 7, and the Scottish Conservatives fell to 12 seats, losing all five constituency seats they had held. Turnout fell to 53.0%, down 10.5 points on 2021. Reform UK's 17 seats all came from regional lists, making it jointly the second-largest opposition party alongside Labour. The Greens' Lorna Slater won Edinburgh Central in a constituency upset, defeating Angus Robertson.

The post-2026 Holyrood is a more fragmented chamber than any previous iteration. Five parties hold more than 10 seats each. The SNP must build case-by-case support across the Greens and others to pass legislation; Reform UK and the Conservatives form a combined 29-seat right-of-centre bloc that, while short of a blocking minority on its own, complicates cross-party consensus. The chamber's internal dynamics will define the constitutional debate on Scottish independence for the remainder of this parliamentary term.