MSPs to receive £3,000 pay rise

MSPs are set to receive a 4.3 per cent pay rise, which will increase their salaries by over £3,000.  

MSPs’ salaries will rise from £74,507 to £77,710 beginning in April. 

The uplift also applies to Scottish ministers and the first minister. Holyrood has contacted the Scottish Government to clarify whether it intends to accept the pay increase due to come into force in April.

Speaking at the Finance and Public Audit Committee this morning, Jackson Carlaw, the member of the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body (SPCB) who oversees finance and organisation governance, said a key theme of the body’s budget proposals for the forthcoming financial year is “value for money, prioritisation and reform”.  

He pointed out that despite the uplift, salaries remain below that of counterparts in Westminster and the Senedd, adding that in the last five years, MSPs’ pay has lagged 8.2 per cent behind the consumer price index (CPI). 

To inform MSP and ministerial salary uplifts, the SPCB has continued to use the Average Weekly Earnings index, “consistent with the treatment for the last two years,” Carlaw said.  

A Scottish Parliament spokesperson said: “MSPs’ pay will rise by 4.3 per cent in line with the annualised Average Weekly Earnings index figure for September 2025. 

“Over a six-year period, MSPs’ pay is lagging 8.2 percentage points below the CPI rate of inflation, which equates to approximately £5,300.” 

In April last year, the Scottish Government ended a 16-year pay freeze on ministerial salaries, which meant that at the time junior ministers would be paid £100,575 a year, while cabinet secretaries would receive £116,125 - this represented an increase of more than £19,000. 

First Minister John Swinney declined the pay rise.