Scott stood as the Conservative candidate for
Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley at the
1999 Scottish Parliament election, finishing third behind Labour and the Scottish National Party with 8,123 votes (19.8%).
Member of the Scottish Parliament He has served as constituency MSP for Ayr since winning the constituency in a
by-election in 2000. He was returned to Parliament at the
2003 Scottish Parliamentary election and again, with an increased majority, at the
2007 Scottish Parliamentary election. At the
2011 and
2016 elections he retained the constituency with a reduced majority, despite seeing his vote increase by 3,564 between 2007 and 2016. Scott declared his support for
Ruth Davidson in the
Scottish Conservative leader election. On 11 May 2011, he was elected by MSPs to serve as one of the two Deputy Presiding Officers of the Scottish Parliament. He served until 2016 when he was unsuccessful in his attempt to become
Presiding Officer. Scott was the Scottish Conservative spokesperson for sustainable development between 2016 and 2021, having previously served as spokesperson for the environment from 2001 until 2003 and as spokesperson on rural affairs from 2007 until 2011. He was appointed as the
convener of the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee of the Scottish Parliament in June 2016. In
2021, he narrowly lost his seat to the
Scottish National Party's
Siobhian Brown, trailing her by 170 votes (0.4%). Scott was not among the Conservatives to seek election on the
South Scotland list, which saw the party gain another regional MSP after losing their constituency seat. ==Other activity==