In the Scottish Parliament, confidence motions can be lodged against any member of the Scottish Government, or the government as a whole. These motions give the opportunity for the legislature to express its confidence, or lack thereof, in the executive and require the backing of at least 25 MSPs in order to be voted on. In the lifetime of the Parliament, nine such votes have taken place, none of which have been successful.
If a motion of no confidence in the whole Scottish Government is successful then, under the Scotland Act 1998, Scottish ministers are compelled to resign. The Parliament would then have 28 days to nominate a replacement First Minister before a Holyrood election could be called. However, while politically difficult, an individual minister losing a confidence vote would not be required to resign.
Motions of no confidence in the Scottish Parliament can be laid against individual ministers, the First Minister, or the entire Scottish Government. Such motions give Parliament the opportunity to show whether they have confidence in these ministers, or the government, to continue in post. Under the Standing Orders of the Parliament, at least 25 of the body's 129 MSPs need to sign a motion of no confidence in order for it to be voted on. Standing Orders also state that "members shall normally be given at least two sitting daysâ notice of a motion of no confidence". However, they may be given less notice if the Parliamentary Bureau, made up of representatives from across the Parliament, deems it appropriate.
A motion of no confidence is only legally binding under the Scotland Act 1998 if it relates to the Scottish Government as a whole. In this case, all ministers would be compelled to resign. After the resignation of the First Minister, the Parliament has 28 days to nominate a successor. If a successor is not approved, then the Presiding Officer would propose a date for a new election. However, even if such an election were to take place, the electoral cycle would not change and the next election would still take place at its originally scheduled time.
If a motion of no confidence was passed in an individual minister, including the First Minister, they would be under no obligation to resign.
No confidence vote has ever been lost by the Scottish Government or a minister, and nine have taken place in total. Several motions have also been lodged that were not ultimately voted on due to, for example, lack of support or the minister in question no longer being in post. Although no motion has been successful, the threat of a no confidence vote in SNP Education Secretary Fiona Hyslop in 2009, which would have passed given the parliamentary arithmetic at the time, led to her being demoted from the government before the motion could be lodged by the Liberal Democrats.
The first motion of no confidence voted on in the Scottish Parliament was in Education Minister Sam Galbraith in December 2000. And the most recent no confidence vote took place in December 2025 in relation to Justice Secretary Angela Constance.
The resignation of Humza Yousaf as First Minister in 2024 occurred, in part, due to a confidence motion lodged against him. This followed the breakdown of the Bute House Agreement, a cooperation agreement between the SNP and Scottish Greens, which Yousaf had terminated. The Greens subsequently stated they would back a no confidence motion lodged by Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross against Yousaf. This meant that, given the make-up of the Parliament, Alba MSP Ash Regan would be the deciding vote. In 2023, she had lost the SNP leadership election to Yousaf and later defected to the Alba Party (led by the former First Minister Alex Salmond). Yousaf eventually decided to resign rather than make a deal with Regan. He said in his resignation speech that "while a route through this week's motion of no confidence was absolutely possible, I am not willing to trade my values and principles, or do deals with whomever, simply for retaining power." Ross withdrew his motion following Yousaf's decision to resign.
Only one MSP has ever voted against their own government in a confidence vote, Fergus Ewing (then an SNP MSP). In 2023, Ewing voted in favour of a no confidence motion in Green minister Lorna Slater, saying that business had no confidence in her management of the Deposit Return Scheme (a container return scheme). In response, SNP MSPs voted by 48 to 9 (with 4 abstentions) to suspend Ewing from the party for one week. Ewing later left the party in 2025.