Between 1707 and 1999, Scotland was governed solely by the British Parliament at Westminster, but in a referendum on 11 September 1997, a majority of the Scottish people voted for a devolved Scottish Parliament with tax-varying powers.
Arrangements for this Parliament were set out in The Scotland Act, 1998 and on 1 July 1999, the new Scottish Parliament was officially opened in Edinburgh.
The Scottish Parliament is still developing as an institution and the types of records it produces are evolving to reflect this. Until this situation stabilises, it is difficult to put together a comprehensive cataloguing scheme to cover the eventual arrangement of records in a logical and understandable way. For this reason, none of the items received from the Parliament have yet been formally catalogued. However copies of the items already held by NRS are available from other sources:
- Electronic copies of petitions and e-petitions can be seen on the Scottish Parliament's own website.
- Printed Parliament publications, such as the Official Report, the Business Bulletin and Written Answers, can be consulted at public libraries throughout Scotland and on the Scottish Parliament's website.
- All Acts of the Scottish Parliament are published in full text form as originally enacted on the Parliament’s website. They are also available on the Legislation website of the Office of Public Sector Information, both in original and revised form (currently only Acts of the Old Scottish Parliament are available in revised form).
