In numbers: Scottish Parliament celebrates 20th anniversary

Since the first election on May 6 1999, a total of 306 people have been voted in as MSPs over 20 years.

Of those just 18 have served continuously – with both First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and the current Holyrood Presiding Officer Ken Macintosh in this group.

The others are Jackie Baillie, Bruce Crawford, Roseanna Cunningham, Fergus Ewing, Linda Fabiani, Christine Grahame, Fiona Hyslop, Johann Lamont, Lewis Macdonald, Michael Matheson, Alex Neil, Shona Robison, Tavish Scott, Elaine Smith, John Swinney and Sandra White.

The SNP’s Richard Lochhead only misses out on being part of that group by some three weeks.

He was elected as a list MSP in May 1999 but stood down on April 7 2006 to fight the Moray by-election, caused by the death of Margaret Ewing, winning the seat on April 27.

John Scott is the longest serving Tory, having been an MSP since winning the Ayr by-election on March 16 2000 – the first Scottish Parliament by-election.

Apart from MSPs, 1,087 other people work in the Scottish Parliament – with Holyrood employing 530 directly while 557 work as MSPs’ staff.

Since it first met on May 12 1999, Holyrood has passed a total of 287 pieces of legislation.

Meanwhile, there have been 660 sessions of First Minister’s Questions, with five different first ministers taking part – Donald Dewar, Henry McLeish, Jack McConnell, Alex Salmond and Ms Sturgeon.

Over the years, 161,618 written questions have been submitted to ministsers by MSPs.

Inside Holyrood is 33,000 square metres in size, while the parliamentary site is eight acres.

The site is also home to 11 beehives.