The Parliamentary committee on harassment's report has been published.
It concludes that:
“James Hamilton’s report is the most appropriate place to address the question of whether or not the First Minister has breached the Scottish Ministerial Code.”
He found she did not.
The Report rejects conspiracy theories about messages between women saying:
On the texts by Peter Murrell, the report accepts his explanation. The repeated political smears of Peter Murrell are rejected.
The FM today updated Parliament on Covid-19. She said:
"The Cabinet met this morning to assess the up to date Covid situation and discuss what further action is necessary to minimise further spread of the virus.
"I can confirm now, in summary, that we decided to introduce from tomorrow, for the duration of January, a legal requirement to stay at home except for essential purposes.
"This is similar to the lockdown of March last year.
"In the last few weeks, there have been 2 significant game changers in our fight against this virus.
"One, the approval of vaccines, is hugely positive and offers us the way out of this pandemic.
"But the other - the new faster spreading variant of the virus - is a massive blow
The FM today updated Parliament on the Covid-19 protection levels.
First, she set out today’s key statistics including 1,248 new cases and, tragically, a further 37 deaths.
Making a statement, the FM said:
“My deepest condolences go to all those who have lost a loved one.
“National Records of Scotland will publish its weekly report tomorrow. This records deaths confirmed through a test as being Covid related and also those that are presumed to be so.
“It is very likely that the death toll on that wider measure will this week pass 5,000.
She said: "In mid July, we were recording an average of 9 new cases a day. Around 4 weeks later, that had risen to an average of 52 cases a day. Three weeks after that, it was 102. Today it is 285."
"We cannot be complacent about Covid. It kills too many old and vulnerable people. And for younger, healthier people, while the risks of dying from it are much lower - though not non-existent - it can still result in long term, serious health problems."
Speaking to Parliament she said:
“in light of the increase in cases - and because it must still be our aim to keep prevalence of the virus as low as possible - we have taken the precautionary decision to pause some changes that we had previously scheduled
“I will also announce a tightening and extension of some existing restrictions and rules, as part of our efforts to slow the rise in cases as we enter winter.
The First Minister today published the @scotgov Programme for Government setting out our plans, focused on tackling Covid-19 and supporting new, good, green jobs.
In her statement to Parliament, the FM said: "Today’s programme is clear that suppressing COVID is our most immediate priority - and it will remain so for some time."