First Minister's Questions (Scottish Parliament)

The Parliament's first Presiding Officer Sir David Steel had reservations about the format, describing it as "something of a caricature of Prime Minister’s Question Time”.

[5][6] He also wished for FMQs to run for longer and allowing back-benchers to be given more time to ask supplementary questions.

[8] In May 2011, as the 4th Scottish Parliament got underway, Presiding Officer Tricia Marwick announced changes to give backbench MSPs more involvement.

[9] This quickly resulted in the shortest exchange at FMQs between the First Minister and the Leader of the Opposition since early 2007, with eleven back-benchers asking questions or supplementaries.

[10] In May 2016, at the start of the 5th Scottish Parliament, MSPs approved a trial period where the length of the session was extended to 45 minutes.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon answering questions at a session of FMQs on 2 September 2021. Sturgeon's eventual successor, Humza Yousaf , is seated to her left.