The Parliament goes into campaign recess on 26th March 2026 ahead of dissolution for the Scottish Parliament general election on Thursday 7 May 2026. This short blog explains what Bills are, how they are scrutinised by the Parliament and what happens to Bills which have not completed Stage 3 at the end of the session.
What are Bills?
A Bill is a proposed Act of the Scottish Parliament. A Bill might be a proposal on a new idea, or it may change or remove part of an existing law. The Parliament considers different types of Bills, including:
- Government Bills
- Members’ Bills
- Committee Bills
- Budget Bills
- Private Bills
- Hybrid Bills
Most Bills are “Public Bills”. This means that they are introduced by a Member of the Scottish Parliament and deal with matters of public policy and the general law. Various types of Bills including Government Bills, Members’ Bills and Committee Bills are classed as Public Bills. This blog focuses on these types of Bills. Private Bills and Hybrid Bills follow different rules and the Parliament has not considered any Private or Hybrid Bill this session.
Parliamentary scrutiny
Bills go through a three stage process at the Scottish Parliament. At Stage 1 a Committee is usually asked to consider a Bill and report on it before the whole Parliament votes on whether to support the general principles of the Bill.
Stage 2 is again a committee stage. This is the first point at which MSPs are able to lodge amendments to make changes to the Bill. The Committee considering the Bill debates amendments and votes on them.
Stage 3 is the final amending stage and is a two-part process. The whole Parliament first considers any amendments and votes on whether to agree to them or not. The second part of the process is a debate on the Bill as amended. At the end of the debate the Parliament must vote on whether or not to pass the Bill.
If a Bill passes it must receive Royal Assent (where the King agrees to the Bill) before it becomes and Act of the Scottish Parliament and the law.
If the Parliament votes against the Bill at Stage 3 then the Bill falls and does not become law.
What is the timetable for considering Bills?
The Standing Orders set out minimum periods between different Stages of a Bill. These are illustrated in the graphic below.
The timings for Budget Bills differ. Standing Orders provide that:
Stage 3 shall normally begin no earlier than 60 days after introduction of the Bill. If Stage 3 is not completed before the expiry of 70 days after introduction of the Bill…the Bill falls.
Under the Standing Orders Rule 9.8.6, the Parliament is also able to refer a Bill back to a committee for further Stage 2 consideration:
At the beginning of the debate on the motion that the Bill be passed, the member in charge of the Bill may by motion propose that such part of the Bill as may be specified in the motion, amounting to no more than half of the total number of sections of the Bill, be referred back to committee for further Stage 2 consideration. If the motion is agreed to, the proceedings are adjourned to a time to be determined by the Parliamentary Bureau which shall refer the Bill to a committee in accordance with the Parliament’s decision. When the Stage 3 proceedings resume the Bill may be amended, but amendments are only admissible if they are to the provisions which were referred back to committee or if they are necessary in consequence of any amendment made at the further Stage 2 proceedings.
If a Bill is referred for further Stage 2 consideration, then a minimum period of four sitting days must elapse between the day on which Stage 3 proceedings are adjourned and the day on which further Stage 2 proceedings start. Four sitting days must also pass between the day on which the further Stage 2 proceedings are competed and the day on which Stage 3 proceedings resume, although this rule only applies if the Committee makes changes to the Bill.
How many Bills have been considered this session?
SPICe publishes a factsheet on primary legislation considered by the Session 6 Parliament. As at 6 March 2026:
- 82 Bills have been considered by the Parliament this session – 62 have been Government Bills and 20 Member’s Bills.
- 52 Bills are now Acts of the Scottish Parliament and 9 are awaiting Royal Assent.
- 4 Bills have been withdrawn – 3 Member’s Bills and 1 Government Bill.
- 6 Member’s Bills have fallen.
The SPICe factsheet provides a breakdown of which Bills fall into each category and is updated weekly.
How many Bills are yet to complete Stage 3?
There are a number of Bills (both Government and Members Bills) still being considered by the Parliament. All Bills being considered by the Parliament are available on the Scottish Parliament Website.
Some of these Bills may not proceed to or complete Stage 3 this session. The Net Zero, Energy and Transport (NZET) Committee has, for example, written to the Presiding Officer to indicate that in relation to the Ecocide (Scotland) Bill, a Member’s Bill introduced by Monica Lennon MSP:
A majority of the Committee see no way through for the Bill at Stage 2 and 3 with such limited time remaining, and few remaining slots in our work programme – even allowing, where possible, for additional or extended meetings. The issue is not merely the risk of passing rushed legislation, including amendments that stakeholders may have had limited time to consider, but the more fundamental one of the Committee simply being at the limit of what it can realistically do.
Monica Lennon MSP also wrote to the Presiding Officer on the timings for consideration of the Ecocide (Scotland) Bill on 18 February 2026.
On 3 March 2026 the Presiding Officer wrote to the Convener of the NZET Committee on the ecocide (Scotland) Bill, stating:
The Bureau noted the challenges that the Committee identifies in its correspondence including the pressures of its current workload, the limited time remaining in the parliamentary session and the risk of passing rushed legislation.
The Bureau considered the other options for consideration of the Bill at Stage 2 under Standing Orders and agreed not to propose an alternative approach to the consideration of the Bill at Stage 2. In taking this decision, the Bureau was cognisant of the pressures on the workload of committees and the Chamber in the short period remaining this session.
In its report Strengthening Committee Effectiveness, published in October 2025, the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments (SPPA) Committee concluded that “the deadline should be brought forward for when Members Bills must be introduced by in a parliamentary session.” The SPPA Committee published its report Standing Order rule changes arising from the Committee’s report ‘Strengthening Committee Effectiveness’ on 27 January 2026. The report states:
Standing Orders Rule 9.14 sets out the current deadlines for introduction of Members’ Bills. These are the first sitting day in June in the calendar year preceding a general election or, exceptionally and with the consent of the Parliamentary Bureau, the last sitting day in September in that year.
In relation to capacity for scrutiny of Members’ Bills, we recommended that the deadline for introduction of such Bills should be moved from the first sitting day in June in the calendar year proceeding a general election to the first sitting day in December in the third year of a parliamentary session. Whilst this reduces the time for Members to introduce their own legislation, we consider that this could potentially reduce some of the pressure of legislation on committees in the final part of the parliamentary session as it would bring forward committee consideration of members bills.
The rule changes contained in the report are yet to be considered and approved, or not, by the whole Parliament in the Chamber.
What happens if a Bill does not complete its parliamentary scrutiny by dissolution?
Bills which have not completed Stage 3 by the time the Parliament is dissolved, fall. This means that they will not become law. Bills are not carried over to the next Session of the Parliament. Rather, a Bill must be re-introduced and will start again at Stage 1 (there are slightly different rules for Private and Hybrid Bills).
At the UK Parliament a carry-over motion can be tabled which allows a Bill to carry over from one session of the Parliament to the next. No such provision exists in the Standing Orders of the Scottish Parliament. This is because what constitutes a session of the Scottish and UK Parliaments differ.
- At the Scottish Parliament a session is the full duration of the Parliament between elections and is broken down into years.
- At the UK Parliament, the ‘Parliament’ is the time between one general election and the next and each Parliament is divided into sessions which are roughly a year long.
This difference is important in the context of the consideration of Bills because carry-over motions at the UK Parliament mean that the same Parliament will consider a Bill. At the Scottish Parliament, if provision were to be made to carry over Bills from one Session to the next, it would be a completely different Parliament which considered the Bills. In essence the rules at both Parliaments are the same in that Bills which have not completed scrutiny by the point at which dissolution occurs for a general election fall.
What happens to Bills which have completed Stage 3 but which have not received Royal Assent?
Bills which have completed Stage 3 but which have not received Royal Assent do not fall at the end of a session. These Bills can:
- go on to receive Royal Assent
- be subject to legal review and reconsideration by the Parliament
- be subject of no further action and therefore not become law.
During the current Session two Bills which were passed in Session 5, but which were referred to the Supreme Court have been reconsidered by the Parliament. The Scottish Parliament passed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill (“the UNCRC Bill”) and the European Charter of Local Self-Government (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill (“the ECLSG Bill”) on the 16 March 2021 and 23 March 2021 (Session 5), respectively. However, neither were submitted for Royal Assent.
This is because there is a four week period following the passing of a Bill during which time one of the law officers (the Advocate General for Scotland, the Attorney General or the Lord Advocate) is able refer a Bill, or a provision within a Bill, to the UK Supreme Court to ask whether the Bill or provision would be within the legislative competence of the Parliament. As the Scottish Government Bill Handbook explains:
Under section 32, the Presiding Officer may not submit the Bill for Royal Assent while a Law Officer is entitled to make such a reference, while the UKSC is considering the matter, or if the UKSC has decided that the Bill or any provision in it would not be within legislative competence.
Both Bills were referred to the Supreme Court by the Attorney General and the Advocate General for Scotland under section 33(1) of the Scotland Act 1998. The Supreme Court concluded in October 2021 that certain provisions in each of the Bills were not within the legislative competence of the Parliament.
On 24 May 2022 (Session 6), the then Deputy First Minister John Swinney MSP announced that the Scottish Government intended to bring the UNCRC Bill back to the Parliament for a Reconsideration Stage. Similarly, the Deputy First Minister announced on 24 May 2022 that the Scottish Government would support Mark Ruskell MSP, as additional Member in charge of the Bill (as Andy Wightman MSP, who introduced the Bill in Session 5 was not returned to Parliament for Session 6) to take forward the ECLSG Bill to a Reconsideration Stage in the Parliament.
On 14 September 2023 the Parliament agreed to hold a Reconsideration Stage for the UNCRC Bill. The Reconsideration Stage took place on 7 December 2023 and the Bill received Royal Assent and became as Act of the Scottish Parliament on 16 January 2024.
On 4 February 2026 the Parliament debated whether to have a Reconsideration Stage for the ECLSG Bill and agreed a motion to allow a Reconsideration Stage. That Reconsideration Stage took place on 3 March 2026 and the Bill was passed by the Parliament.
The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill was passed on 22 December 2022. In January 2023 the then Secretary of State for Scotland made a Section 35 Order in relation to the Bill. The effect of the Order is to prevent the Bill in its current form from being submitted for Royal Assent. The Bill has, however, been passed by the Parliament and does not therefore fall but remains a current Bill in Session 7.
A Bill can also be withdrawn, but if the Bill has already finished Stage 1 then the Scottish Parliament must agree to it being withdrawn. An example of this was the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Legal Continuity) (Scotland) Bill which the Parliament passed on 21 March 2018 but agreed to withdraw on 10 March 2022 following a ruling by the UK Supreme Court.
Sarah McKay, SPICe research