Ken Macintosh MSP was elected as the Presiding Officer for the Fifth Session of the Scottish Parliament on Thursday 12 May 2016.
This section of the website tells you a little about the role of the Presiding Officer, the two Deputy Presiding Officers and their main responsibilities.
The Presiding Officer remains politically impartial in everything that he does, and the Deputies also are required to act impartially when they are undertaking their official duties.
The most obvious responsibility of the presiding officers is to chair plenary sessions of Parliament in the Debating Chamber. In addition, the Presiding Officer’s role includes the selection of questions to be asked at the weekly First Minister’s Question Time as well as the selection of supplementary questions & amendments.
The Presiding Officer also has three other roles in chairing the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body and the Parliamentary Bureau, and representing the Parliament at home and abroad
Information about previous Presiding Officers