Humza Yousaf's term as first minister of Scotland began on 29 March 2023 when he was sworn into office at the Court of Session, and ended on 7 May 2024, when he resigned facing two votes of no confidence in him and his government.

Yousaf was appointed first minister on 29 March 2023, becoming the youngest person, the first Scottish Asian, and the first Muslim to serve in office. He was sworn into the Privy Council in May 2023. In April 2024, he formed a minority government after terminating a power-sharing agreement with the Scottish Greens. After facing an imminent motion of no confidence, he announced his intention to resign as first minister and party leader on 29 April 2024, and was succeeded by John Swinney.

Scottish National Party leadership bid

On 15 February 2023, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced her intention to resign the leadership of the Scottish National Party (SNP), triggering an internal election to elect a successor. Yousaf declared his candidacy for leader on 18 February on a platform as the "continuity candidate" to Sturgeon's progressive policies.

During the campaign, opposition parties, as well as rival candidate Kate Forbes, criticised his record in government. Despite being unpopular among polling by the Scottish public, Yousaf proved popular in SNP membership polling and received the backing of many prominent figures in the party, something his opponents claimed was the "party establishment".

Yousaf received 48.2% in first preference votes, but after Ash Regan was eliminated he picked up a total of 52.1% of second preference votes among Regan's voters, delivering him a narrow victory over Forbes. On 27 March, he was officially announced as the leader of the Scottish National Party.

Tenure Yousaf was officially sworn into office as first minister of Scotland on 29 March 2023 at the Court of Session in Edinburgh after receiving the Royal Warrant of Appointment by King Charles III. He is the youngest, first Scottish Asian and first Muslim officeholder.

In September 2023, the New Statesman named him the thirteenth-most powerful left-wing figure in the UK. In October 2023, The New York Times called him a "trailblazer shaping our time". Upon his first year in office, Anas Sarwar, Leader of the Scottish Labour Party, gave his assessment of Yousaf, stating: "He's a nice guy, he's just not up to the job." Douglas Ross, Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party, described Yousaf's first year as being "nothing short of a disaster for him, his party and - most importantly - the people of Scotland."

First 100 days Cabinet

On 28 March 2023, following his nomination as first minister, he announced that Shona Robison would serve as his deputy first minister. That same day, Kate Forbes, who Yousaf defeated in the SNP leadership race, announced she was leaving government after turning down a demotion as rural affairs secretary in his cabinet. Yousaf announced the formation of a new government following his appointment to office on 29 March 2023. The Bute House Agreement, a co-operation agreement between the SNP and the Greens, was continued into his new administration, this making his government a majority informal coalition.

Robison succeeded Forbes as the finance secretary, while his campaign manager in the leadership election, Neil Gray, was promoted to government as the wellbeing economy secretary. Jenny Gilruth and Màiri McAllan were promoted to cabinet as education secretary and net zero secretary, respectively. Michael Matheson succeeded Yousaf as the health secretary, with responsibility of NHS recovery, and Shirley-Anne Somerville was appointed social justice secretary. Mairi Gougeon and Angus Robertson remained in their respective roles as rural affairs secretary and the constitution secretary.

Keith Brown, the depute leader of the SNP, was axed from government as the justice secretary. His departure came amid the controversial imprisonment of Isla Bryson, a transgender woman convicted twice for rape before their gender transition, who was sent to a women's prison. Angela Constance, who previously served in the cabinets of Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, returned to cabinet, succeeding Brown as the justice secretary.

Yousaf's cabinet is majority women, with six women and three men. All members of his cabinet are allies and were supporters of his leadership bid.

Other key appointments included, Jamie Hepburn as the minister for independence, which the Scottish Conservatives criticised the appointment as "taxpayer-funded nationalist campaigner". Gillian Martin was appointed the energy minister. In Sturgeon's 2018 cabinet reshuffle, she initially nominated Martin for further education minister, however, after making offensive comments about minority groups on a blog post ten years prior, Sturgeon reversed her decision to appoint her a junior minister. Yousaf was criticised for her appointment to government.

Fuel poverty

Yousaf announced the Fuel Insecurity Fund would increase to £30 million as part of his government's effort to "lift people out of poverty, to make work fair, to make our economy work for the people."

First session of FMQ's

Yousaf attended his first session of First Minister's Questions in the Scottish Parliament on 30 March 2023, which was interrupted five times by protestors. Opposition parties criticised his governance of NHS Scotland as health secretary and his decision to appoint an independence minister.

Key policies

Yousaf pledged to commit supporting triple energy costs by £30 million, extending the rent cap, extra spending for childcare and established a food security unit. However, he was accused by opposition parties of abandoning a pledge to extend free school meals, however it was later clarified that there was no change to the plan and that the government would continue to extend free school meals.

Deposit Return Scheme

Yousaf accused the UK Government of placing the future of the Scottish Government's Deposit Return Scheme "in grave danger" in June 2023. His comments came following a UK Government warning that it may block the inclusion of glass in the recycling scheme, and that policy surrounding deposit return schemes should be "consistent UK wide". The intervention from the UK Government in an area of Scottish Government control sparked further constitutional tensions between Holyrood and Westminster, with Yousaf stating that the intervention is a "major erosion of the devolution settlement".

In early June 2023, Yousaf wrote to UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak urging him to revoke the decision regarding the removal of glass from the deposit return scheme by Monday 5 June. In the letter, Yousaf claimed that "the UK Government's demands, including the removal of glass from DRS, would impact the environment, detrimentally affect businesses based in Scotland, and threaten the viability of the scheme".

100 days in office

Yousaf marked his one hundredth day in office on 6 July 2023. To mark his first one hundred days as First Minister, Yousaf penned an open letter highlighting the work done by the Scottish Government under his leadership. In the letter, Yousaf declared that "In the first 100 days, we [the Scottish Government] have defined the core missions of my administration – equality, opportunity, community. And we have delivered substantial measures to help achieve them." Some of Yousaf's major achievements in his first one hundred days as First Minister has included £15 million to deliver free after school and holiday clubs for children across Scotland, tripling of funding to help households most impacted by poverty against fuel poverty, additional measures to protect tenants and upholding tenants rights, preparation work commencing to shape and rebuild how education in Scotland is delivered, announcement of law reform proposals, consulting on council tax reforms to minimise the number of empty second homes, providing additional funding to Scotland's food and drink industry, as well as further commitments in areas such as the NHS Scotland, NHS waiting times and additional funding for NHS cancer support services.

A poll conducted by YouGov between June 26 and June 29, 2023, found that half of Scots think that Yousaf's performance in his first 100 days as First Minister was weak, and that he was "doing a bad job". The same poll found that 23% of those surveyed endorsed Yousaf's time in office. This was largely due to a variety of government policy U-turns on Scottish Government policies, such as the deposit return scheme and highly protected marine areas (HPMAs).

Opposition parties in the Scottish Parliament has been critical of some of Yousaf's policies and conduct as First Minister, such as "lack of transparency" regarding the financial scandal that had been occurring in Yousaf's party, the Scottish National Party, throughout 2023 when Yousaf took office as First Minister.

Beyond 100 days

Yousaf called for Labour leader Keir Starmer and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar to ditch the two child cap limit introduced by the Conservative Party, following comments from Starmer who stated he would not scrap it.

On 18 July 2023, following the withdrawal of Victoria in hosting the 2026 Commonwealth Games, Yousaf said that he would look to explore the possibility of Scotland potentially playing a role in hosting the 2026 games in a joint capacity with another city or country.

Building A New Scotland

In June 2023, Yousaf launched the fourth Building a New Scotland paper which focused on the constitution of an independent Scotland. Yousaf declared that there would be a written constitution for an independent Scotland, claiming that such a constitution would set a benchmark in which no future Scottish Government could fall short of as it would be a constitution enshrined into Scots law. Yousaf declared that the government had placed a commitment to a constitution that gave the population "the right to access a system of healthcare free at the point of need, as well as rules on land ownership and environmental provisions".

The previous three papers in the series were published by Yousaf's predecessor, Nicola Sturgeon.

Opposition parties in Scotland criticised Yousaf and the Scottish Government for "focusing on the wrong priorities". A spokesman for the UK Government said "We want to work constructively with the Scottish government to tackle our shared challenges because that is what families and businesses in Scotland expect" and that "this is not the time to be talking about distracting constitutional change".

On 27 July 2023, Yousaf launched the fifth paper in the Building a New Scotland series entitled Citizenship in an independent Scotland. The prospectus set out the Scottish Government's proposals for citizenship and passports in an independent Scotland, with the Scottish Government seeking to pursue an "inclusive" model similar to that in the Republic of Ireland. People born outside Scotland would automatically be entitled to Scottish citizenship under the plans if at least one of their parents were Scottish, and Scottish people resident in Scotland at the time of independence would be entitled to hold dual Scottish and British citizenship should be desire. The paper commits an independent Scotland to remaining a member of the Common Travel Area, meaning that there would be no hard border between Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom on land or at sea. Scottish citizens would have the right to a Scottish passport on the day of independence, however, British passports held by Scots after independence would remain valid until their date or expiry.

Drugs policy