For the second consecutive election, the Scottish National Party were returned with the most seats at 27 but remained shy of an overall majority.

The Liberal Democrats and independents both made two gains to return three and two members respectively while the Greens won their first ever seat in South Lanarkshire.

On 18 May, Labour and the Lib Dems announced that they would run the council as a coalition, alongside one independent councillor, with support from the Conservatives.

Labour had won every previous election in South Lanarkshire following the local government reforms in the 1990s.

Each ward elected either 3 or 4 members, using the single transferable vote (STV) electoral system – a form of proportional representation – where candidates are ranked in order of preference.

Unlike the previous election, the Liberal Democrats did not contest every ward after only 16 candidates were selected.

In June 2021, Cllr Burns was cleared of sexual assault but was called a "nuisance drunk" by a Sheriff before being banned from public transport for pestering a woman on a bus.

In 2016, Cllr Burns was convicted of a similar offence involving a 17-year-old girl and was previously fined for public urination.

The net gain/loss and percentage changes relate to the result of the previous Scottish local elections on 4 May 2017.

This may differ from other published sources showing gain/loss relative to seats held at the dissolution of Scotland's councils.

[4] Source:[38][39] The SNP, the Liberal Democrats and Labour held the seats they won at the previous election.

In 2017, Cllr Mark McGeever was elected as a Conservative candidate but he subsequently defected to the Liberal Democrats.

Source:[58][59] Despite having again been returned as the largest party, the outgoing SNP administration was replaced by a coalition of Labour, Liberal Democrat and independent councillors, with Conservative support.

[64] In June 2023, council leader Joe Fagan was suspended for two months for a breach of the councillors' code of conduct after he disclosed confidential information about the potential closure of leisure facilities in 2021 to the local press.

[65] Following the defection of East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow MP Lisa Cameron from the SNP to the Conservatives in October 2023, her husband – Cllr Mark Horsham – stood back from his role as business manager within the SNP group[66] before resigning from the party to sit as an independent 10 days later.

[67] In May 2023, East Kilbride West councillor Ali Salamati resigned his seat for work reasons triggering a by-election.