New presiding officer, Alison Johnstone is elected and all MSPs have taken their oath or affirmation.

Here are the headlines:

• The parliament is now split down the middle with 64 SNP MSPs and 64 opposition MSPs
• Although elected a Scottish Green MSP, Ms Johnstone's role has to be non-political

• Nicola Sturgeon was the first to make an affirmation in this sixth session of the Scottish Parliament

• Five other party leader, including co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater for the Scottish Greens followed

• A record number of women have been elected to the parliament with 58 female MSPs taking the affirmation or oath today

Image source, Getty Images

• Labour's Pam Duncan-Glancy becomes the first permanent wheelchair using MSP
• Tory MSP Pam Gosal becomes the first Sikh and the first woman of colour to take the oath
• Ms Gosal is later joined by the first woman of colour to be elected, SNP MSP Kaukab Stewart
• A wide-ranging array of languages were used including, Arabic, BSL, Scots, Gaelic, Doric, Welsh, German, Urdu and Québécois

Image source, Getty Images

• SNP MSP Christine Grahame becomes the mother of the house

• And some new members with a previous political life include Angus Robertson, Paul Sweeney and Michelle Thomson (all former MPs)

So we have a new presiding officer in Alison Johnstone, taking over from Ken Macintosh.

Ms Johnstone says of her predecessor that she "obviously very large shoes to fill" and that Mr Macintosh has done an "outstanding job".

Image source, Reuters

Alison Johnstone enters the chamber to a warm round of applause.

She begins her acceptance speech: "I am very proud to be in this position."

Ken Macintosh declares that Alison Johnstone has been elected as presiding officer.

97 MSPs voted for her, 28 voted against, with two abstentions and one spoiled paper.

Ms Johnstone will have to relinquish her membership of the Scottish Greens to take on the role.

This leaves Holyrood split right down the middle with 64 opposition MSPs and 64 SNP MSPs.

There is still a comfortable pro-independence majority, with 71 MSPs in total.

The vote for the presiding officer takes the form of a secret ballot and does not use the electronic voting system.

Members are seated within three different areas of the Scottish Parliament (Chamber, Chamber public gallery and the Main Hall) to allow for social distancing.

Normally secret ballots are exciting but as Alison Johnstone is the only candidate....

The vote for the presiding officer takes the form of a secret ballot and does not use the electronic voting system.

Members will be seated within three different areas of the Scottish Parliament (Chamber, Chamber public gallery and the Main Hall) to allow for social distancing.

After the voting has taken place, the ballot papers will be collected and will be counted by two clerks.

Image source, Getty Images

Once the clerks counting the votes have recorded the result of each round, the outgoing Presiding Officer Ken Macintosh, will announce the result of the new presiding officer.

Once Alison Johnstone is elected she will be invited by Mr Macintosh to take the chair as Presiding Officer.

Ms Johnstone will have the opportunity to address the parliament if they wish.

Outgoing Presiding Officer Ken Macintosh now oversees the election of his successor.

It has been confirmed that following cross party talks, Alison Johnstone will be the only candidate to replace Mr Macintosh.

This will be the least surprising election in recent times, but MSPs will still vote from 2.15pm.

The swearing in ceremony follows last week's election which saw the SNP win a landslide victory -- falling just one seat short of an overall majority.

Here are the highlights:

• Nicola Sturgeon was the first to make an affirmation in this sixth session of the Scottish Parliament

• Ms Sturgeon was closely followed by the five other party leader (remember Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater are co-leaders of the Scottish Greens)
• Ms Slater became the first new MSP to take the affirmation
• A record number of women have been elected to the parliament with 58 female MSPs taking the affirmation or oath today
• Labour's Pam Duncan-Glancy becomes the first permanent wheelchair user elected to the Scottish Parliament
• Tory MSP Pam Gosal becomes the first Sikh and the first woman of colour to take the oath and she takes it in Punjabi
• Ms Gosal is later joined by the first woman of colour to be elected SNP MSP Kaukab Stewart
• A wide-ranging array of languages were used including, Arabic, BSL, Scots, Gaelic, Doric, Welsh, German, Urdu and Québécois
• SNP MSP Christine Grahame becomes the mother of the house
• Holyrood now has a doctor, a dentist, nurses and...a "milkman", with the election of Neil Gray
• Some well known faces joined the throng at Holyrood, including Angus Robertson, Paul Sweeney, Michelle Thomson and Mark Ruskell
• MSPs are straight to work now as they must elect a new presiding officer, overseen by the incumbent Ken Macintosh
• Alison Johnstone is all but a certainty to take over his role as PO

There is another batch of new SNP MSPs, including Màiri McAllan, Paul McLennan, Mairi McNair and Jenni Minto.

Image source, Getty Images

Scottish Labour MSP Paul O'Kane is the latest new face, joined later by SNP MSP Emma Roddick and her colleague Collette Stevenson.

The new Stirling MSP is Evelyn Tweed for the SNP and then it is the turn of Labour MSP Mercedes Villaba.

Image source, Getty Images

Also new to Holyrood are Tory MSPs Sue Webber, Tess White, Martin Whitfield and Elena Whitam, who repeats her affirmation in Québécois.

Scottish Labour MSP Foysol Choudhury is the final MSP to make his oath or affirmation.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

This year's intake of MSPs sees the return of Labour's Paul Sweeney to front line politics. He was the MP for Glasgow North East but lost his seat in 2019. He was elected last Thursday to represent the Glasgow Region.

Image source, get

Michelle Thomson was elected to Holyrood after winning the Falkirk East constituency for the SNP. She previously served as the MP for Edinburgh West until 2017.

Is this Scotland's most diverse parliament yet?published at 13:17 BST 13 May 2021

13:17 BST 13 May 2021

Philip Sim
BBC Scotland political correspondent

Holyrood's diverse representation had somewhat stalled in recent years - but that has all changed now.

The class of 2021 includes a record number of 58 female MSPs. The SNP now has 34 women, Labour have 10, the Conservatives have eight, the Scottish Greens have five and the Lib Dems have one female MSP.

It has chiefly been driven by the SNP's policy of having all-women shortlists for many seats where male MSPs were retiring - meaning a lot of older male MSPs have effectively been replaced by younger women.

Among those are the first women of colour elected to Holyrood, the SNP's Kaukab Stewart and Pam Gosal of the Scottish Tories.

Labour's Pam Duncan-Glancy became the first wheelchair user returned to Holyrood, in what may be the most diverse parliament to date.

See the Scottish election results in maps and charts

Image source, PA Media

The first women of colour have been elected to the Scottish Parliament in its 22-year history.

Kaukab Stewart of the SNP was elected to represent the Glasgow Kelvin constituency.

And Pam Gosal is now a Conservative MSP for the West of Scotland region.

Prior to the 2021 election campaign, there had been a total of four MSPs from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds - all of them men of Scots-Pakistani heritage.

• Read more here
• Full details of the results from across Scotland, external
• Scottish election results A-Z, external
• The women who hoped to break the mould of Scottish politics

Image source, Getty Images

Kaukab Stewart, the SNP member for Glasgow Kelvin, is the first woman of colour ever elected as an MSP.

Giving her acceptance speech, Ms Stewart said: "'I may be the first, I will not be the last'

Ms Stewart told other women and girls of colour in Scotland that the parliament belongs to them.

Image source, Getty Images

A familiar face for Westminster watchers, SNP stalwart and new MSP Angus Robertson repeats his affirmation in German.

He won the Edinburgh Central constituency from the Tories - the seat of former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson.

Mr Robertson overturned a Conservative majority of 610, winning 16,276 votes and securing a 4,732 majority over Tory rival Scott Douglas.

Ms Davidson was not seeking re-election to Holyrood.

Instead, she plans to take up a seat in the House of Lords.

Read more here.

It's safe to say that it's been an election like no other.

The votes are counted and the final results are in - take a look back at some of the moments from the 2021 Scottish Parliament election.

• Scottish election 2021: The numbers behind the result

Video by Morgan Spence

Image source, bbc

Highlands and Islands Conservative MSP Edward Mountain is sworn in for the new session of the Scottish Parliament remotely from his home.

This year's proceedings have seen a number of changes brought about due to the pandemic.

Most MSPs are taking the oath from their desks to abide by social distancing rules.

Holyrood had aimed to be more family friendly than Westminster...published at 12:25 BST 13 May 2021

12:25 BST 13 May 2021

It aimed to be a more family friendly than Westminster, but in the 22 years since it was established, Holyrood hasn't made the progress towards a gender balanced parliament that many wanted to see.

In fact, given that fewer female MSPs were elected in 2011 and 2016 than in 1999, the numbers were moving in the wrong direction. Until now.

The record number of women winning seats this year didn't happen by accident though.

Growing pressure on political parties led to them introducing a range of measures to try to address the issue. That included all-women shortlists for constituency selection contests, and zipped lists - where female and male candidates are alternated.

And it appears, from the 2021 outcome, that those have worked.

Campaigners say their work is not done - and may never be done - progress isn't just momentary, they insist, it must be sustained and that takes dedication and determination.

Image source, Getty Images

Stephen Kerr, who will become the Scottish Conservative chief whip, is another new face at the parliament.

As is his party colleague Donald Lumsden.

Gillian Mackay has been elected for the Scottish Green Party as MSP for Central Scotland (Region).

Ms Mackay is a graduate in marine biotechnology and biodiversity.

Image source, Getty Images

Labour MSP Michael Marra is another new face and the brother of retired MSP Jenny Marra. The key question is will Hoppy be a regular visitor to Holyrood?

Image source, Getty Images

Outgoing Presiding Officer Ken Macintosh invites Green MSP Alison Johnstone to take her affirmation.

Up until late last night there were no candidates to replace him in the role.

While several politicians have put themselves forward as a deputy presiding officer, and with the parliamentary arithmetic so finely balanced, no party was keen to give up one of its members for the role of presiding officer.

However it's understood that following cross party talks, Ms Johnstone has been persuaded to stand.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Dr Sandesh Gulhane is among the latest group of MSPs to be sworn in.

The Scottish Conservative MSP represents Glasgow and has worked as a GP in the city. He is also the Queen’s Park FC head of medicine.