No – since the UK general election in May 2005, the constituency boundaries in Scotland for the UK Parliament have differed from those for the Scottish Parliament.

The Scotland Act 1998 set out that the constituencies of the Scottish Parliament were to be the same as those for the United Kingdom Parliament, except that Orkney and Shetland were to be separate constituencies.

Following a review, the Boundary Commission for Scotland proposed that the boundaries of Scottish constituencies for the UK Parliament should be changed and their number reduced from 72 to 59. These changes were agreed by the UK Parliament, and the details are set out in the Parliamentary Constituencies (Scotland) Order 2005.

In order to avoid reducing the number of MSPs, the UK Parliament passed the Scottish Parliament (Constituencies) Act 2004. This piece of legislation modified the Scotland Act 1998 by removing the necessary link between the Scottish Parliament constituencies and those for the UK Parliament. This means that the Scottish Parliament continues to have 73 constituencies and their boundaries remain unchanged.

Constituency boundary maps for Scotland are produced by the Boundary Commission for Scotland. Maps of Scottish constituencies and regions are also available on the Ordnance Survey Election Maps website.

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.

Yes, it is possible to vote by post at the Scottish Parliament elections. Your local council or the Electoral Commission will be able to provide further information about postal voting, or you can download information and a form from the About my Vote website.

Although there are no Members once the Parliament has been dissolved, some constituents may have cases that MSPs have already been working on. MSPs can continue with casework that they began before dissolution, as it is recognised that some cases may be urgent because of the issues involved.

Members cannot, however, accept new constituency casework at this time in their capacity as an MSP. Instead, MSPs who are approached by members of the public seeking help during dissolution may choose to deal with the enquiry in their role as a candidate or prospective candidate. This means they should deal with it through their campaign office or party office, in the same way as all other prospective candidates, and they will not be able to draw on any Scottish Parliament resources to assist them.

MSPs who stand as candidates but are not re-elected will be paid up to and including the date of the election. This is provided for by the Scotland Act 1998.

MSPs who decide to stand down at the election will be paid up to and including the date of dissolution.

At a Scottish Parliament election each voter has two votes.

With one vote, voters choose between candidates standing in their constituency to elect a constituency MSP. The candidate who receives the largest number of votes in the constituency wins the seat. This voting system is called first-past-the-post. There are 73 constituencies for Scottish Parliament elections.

The other vote is for a political party, or for a candidate standing as an individual, within a larger electoral area known as a region. (A region is formed by grouping together between eight and ten constituencies.) There are eight Scottish Parliament regions and each region has seven additional seats in the Parliament. The MSPs chosen to fill these 56 additional seats are known as regional MSPs. Regional MSPs are allocated seats using a formula which takes into account the number of constituency seats that an individual or party has already won.

More information on this system of voting, called the additional member system, can be found in our publication MSPs and their work.

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.

There are 129 MSPs in total, comprising 73 constituency MSPs and 56 regional MSPs. The current party political breakdown is given in the fact sheet entitled “MSPs by Party”.

General elections to the Scottish Parliament normally take place every four years. They are held on the first Thursday in May four years after the date of the last election. The Presiding Officer chooses the date when the Parliament is to be dissolved and members are notified of the date by the Clerk.

If necessary, an extraordinary general election can be held within the four-year period. The Parliament can be dissolved early by royal proclamation if

• at least 86 of the MSPs agree that the Parliament should be dissolved

or

• the post of First Minister is vacant for more than 28 days.

The provisions for ordinary and extraordinary general elections are set out in sections 2 and 3 of the Scotland Act 1998.

You can find maps of Scottish Parliament constituencies and regions in the fact sheet Scottish Parliament Electoral System.

The Boundary Commission for Scotland produces and publishes more detailed boundary maps. Detailed maps of Scottish Parliament constituencies and regions are also available on the Ordnance Survey Election Maps website.

Winding Up Allowance: MSPs who do not stand for re-election or who are not re-elected can claim a winding up allowance to enable them to deal with any outstanding parliamentary affairs, such as terminating the lease on their offices. The maximum amount of the winding up allowance is one third of the annual Members' Support Allowance. Like all allowances, payments are made only when valid claims are submitted. More information about Members' allowances is available in the Members' Allowances Scheme.

Resettlement Grant: MSPs who do not stand for re-election or who are not re-elected receive a resettlement grant that is calculated as a percentage of their annual salary.

This percentage is calculated in relation to (a) the person's age at the dissolution and (b) the number of completed years of his/her service as an MSP before the dissolution.

Details of these arrangements can be found in the Scotland Act 1998 (Transitory and Transitional Provisions) (Grants to Members and Officeholders) Order 1999 (Statutory Instrument 1999/1081).

Pensions: Under the terms of the Scotland Act 1998 (Transitory and Transitional Provisions) (Scottish Parliamentary Pension Scheme) Order 1999 (Statutory Instrument 1999/1082), the pension payable to an MSP is calculated in relation to the MSP's salary and the number of years in service, in accordance with the following formula: (average salary over the last 12 months of service) X (total number of years' reckonable service) divided by 50.

There is no minimum time that an MSP has to serve before being entitled to a pension. The pension is normally payable from the age of 65 for the rest of the MSP's life, although he/she can apply for an early pension on the grounds of ill health.

The First Minister and Presiding Officer receive an annual pension equal to half the salary payable for that post at the date on which they ceased to hold office. This pension is payable immediately on leaving office and for the rest of his/her life, and the arrangements for the pension apply regardless of how long the person has held the post of First Minister or Presiding Officer.

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.

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 will 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 present session.

MSPs cease to be Members of the Scottish Parliament once Parliament is dissolved. During the period of the dissolution, MSPs and their staff will have only the same access to the building as members of the public. They will be able to use parliamentary facilities such as local offices and equipment in order to deal with on-going constituency casework only. They will not be able to use any parliamentary facilities or resources in connection with canvassing or electioneering.

This is to ensure that all candidates or prospective candidates are treated equally and that candidates who were MSPs or the staff of MSPs before dissolution are not given any advantage over other candidates.

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 has begun.

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.

All parliamentary business is suspended during dissolution, and any bills that have not been passed before the Parliament is dissolved will fall. Similarly, any proposals for bills that have not been introduced will also fall.

Bills that have been passed by the Parliament before dissolution can be submitted for royal assent and become Acts after dissolution.

The Scottish Government (the government in Scotland for devolved matters, which was formerly known as the Scotish Executive) continues in office until a new First Minister and new Scottish Ministers are agreed by the Parliament and appointed by Her Majesty The Queen after the election.

The Scotland Act 1998 specifies that the Parliament has to meet within the period of seven days beginning immediately after the day of the election.

The second session of Parliament ended at midnight on Monday 2 April 2007 and dissolution began immediately thereafter. Elections to the Scottish Parliament were held on 3 May 2007, and the first meeting of the third session took place on 9 May.

The closing date for nominations to stand in the 2007 Scottish Parliament election was 11 April. Contact the relevant local authority to obtain a list of candidates for that area. (You can find links to the websites of all Scottish local authorities on the COSLA website.)

Detailed guidance for parliamentary candidates and election agents in relation to the 2007 election is available from the Electoral Commission.

Information on standing as a candidate can be found on the VoteScotland website. (This website was designed by the Electoral Commission and the Scottish Executive to provide information about the Scottish Parliament and local government elections scheduled for May 2007.)

The Scottish Parliament is politically neutral and therefore does not distribute copies of the manifestos produced by the political parties. These may be available on the websites of the political parties or independent candidates. You can find links to the websites of all registered political parties on the Electoral Commission website.

Results of the 1999 Scottish Parliament elections can be found in the MSPs section of our website

Results of the 2003 Scottish Parliament elections can be found in the MSPs section of our website

Results of the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections can be found in the MSPs section of the website

The results of future Scottish Parliament elections will be made available on our website once the Parliament has been notified of the result by the returning officer.

A document entitled “MSPs not standing or not returned in the 2007 Election” is available among the fact sheets on our website.

Anyone will be able to stand as an MSP in the 2007 election, as long as they are at least 18 and are either:

• a United Kingdom, Commonwealth or Republic of Ireland citizen, or
• an EU citizen resident in the United Kingdom

and are not:

• an undischarged bankrupt
• in a post that is paid by the Crown (such as a civil servant or a police officer)
• a prisoner serving a sentence of over one year in prison
• a person found guilty of certain electoral offences

Information about standing as a candidate in a Scottish Parliament election is available on the VoteScotland website.

Anyone who is on the register of local government electors can vote at a Scottish Parliament election. The main requirements if you want to be included on this register are that you must be:

• resident at an address in Scotland
• aged 18 or over on polling day
• a British, Commonwealth, Irish Republic or European Union citizen.

Homeless people can register using a declaration of local intention. People resident overseas (apart from service personnel serving overseas) cannot vote in Scottish Parliament elections.

To register to vote, you should contact the Electoral Registration Officer for your local area. You can do this either by contacting your local council or by looking in the phone book under Electoral Registration Officer.

More information on registering to vote can be found on the VoteScotland website.

Elections to the Scottish Parliament are a reserved matter and, as such, policy and legislation governing elections to the Scottish Parliament are matters for the UK Government and UK Parliament. Within the UK Government, it is the Secretary of State for Scotland who is responsible for the conduct and funding of parliamentary elections in Scotland.