The Scottish Parliament at 25: A timeline

The Scottish Parliament has seen its fair share of ups and downs in the past quarter of a century.

From early wobbles around Holyrood’s runaway building project and the death of the inaugural first minister to the smoking ban and the independence referendum – it’s been anything but boring.

Here, the PA news agency lays out some of the key events of the Scottish Parliament:

May 6 1999: The first Scottish election is held. Labour, as expected, come out on top with 56 seats across the constituency and regional list, taking 35, the Tories on 18, the Lib Dems on 17 and the and Scottish Socialist Party’s on one MSP each. Labour and the Lib Dems agree a coalition, with respective leaders Donald Dewar and Jim Wallace to take up the first minister and deputy first minister positions.