Scottish Parliament cancels recess as business builds pre-election

The Scottish Parliament will not break for recess as pressure builds ahead of the 2026 election.

Business is suspended at regular periods on the parliamentary calendar.

But authorities have elected to call off one such recess as MSPs attend to a raft of mounting business.

The decision applies to the February break, which was to fall within touching distance of the dissolution of parliament ahead of the national vote in May.

In an update to its calendar, the parliament has confirmed that “there will not be a February recess in 2026”.

The decision leaves MSPs with less time to devote to constituency work but more time for chamber debates and committee sessions.

There are more than 20 bills on the slate for parliamentary scrutiny in the remainder of this session.

The total represents around half of the number of bills which have passed into Scots law since the start of this parliament in 2021.

These have included legislation on firework control zones, tourist taxes and more.

The scheduling of debates is agreed by the cross-party Parliamentary Bureau, which includes the presiding officer and representatives of all parties with five or more MSPs.

The recess news comes after concerns were raised by some MSPs about the time remaining to handle existing business. Former Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie told The Scotsman: “On this current timescale, we will have eight stage three debates in March, which will be really difficult to get done, especially if we have hundreds of amendments like the housing bill this week, many of which were debated at stage two for weeks and weeks on end.

“There needs to be some self-control from MSPs, who think it is necessary to put in amendments that have little chance of succeeding and have already been aired - everyone needs to do that.

“Ministers are also making substantial amendments at stage three, which should have been picked up at earlier stages.”

A Scottish Parliament spokeswoman said: “The bureau is responsible for the timetabling of parliamentary business, which is then agreed by parliament as a whole. The bureau meets regularly to discuss the parliamentary timetable, including the amount of legislation.”