NICOLA Sturgeon has pledged a “radical” approach to drive Scotland’s recovery from Covid, warning that the virus must not be allowed to “define our futures”.

On Tuesday, the First Minister will announce the legislative agenda for the final parliamentary session before the Holyrood election next year.

She said protecting public health and recovery from the pandemic will be at the heart of the Scottish Government’s priorities, with the setting out of “radical and wide-ranging policies”.

She said these were “not normal times” and it would “not be a normal programme for government”.

But she said there is now an opportunity not to go back to how things were but make progress towards a “fairer, greener and more prosperous” Scotland.

The first case of Covid-19 in Scotland was reported just under six months ago on March 1.

Since then it has been implicated in the deaths of more than 4000 Scots and the country is now officially in recession after lockdown measures caused a drop of 19.7% in the second quarter of this year.

Speaking ahead of the launch of the programme for government, Sturgeon described it as the “single greatest public health crisis of our lifetimes”, which has had huge impact on “our whole way of life”.

She said: “Businesses and individuals have made extraordinary sacrifices to tackle this pandemic together. In every community in Scotland people have shown incredible resilience, compassion and skill to provide everything from the most advanced intensive care, to simple acts of kindness. That is why it’s so important for us to continue to keep the virus under control. At the same time we must also look to the future – to think about how we can help people, businesses and communities recover from this pandemic.

“We cannot, and should not, let this virus define our futures.”

The First Minister said she would take a “radical” approach to policies outlined in the annual programme to drive a “strong recovery”.

She added: “We have an opportunity, not simply to go back to how things were, but to address many of the deep-seated challenges our country faces.

“The programme for government 2020-21 will be based on our determination to recover from this virus and deliver a fairer, greener and more prosperous Scotland for everyone.”

The programme will include measures to deliver commitments to tackle child poverty and reach net-zero emissions of all greenhouse gases by 2045.

It will also include a response to a recent report from entrepreneur Mark Logan looking at how Scotland can develop a world-class technology sector.

The blueprint for the industry included a raft of recommendations, such as creating a national network of hubs for tech start-ups, offering Silicon Valley training programmes, intensive mentoring and access to funding opportunities.

The pandemic has led to delays in some key actions and legislation previously pledged by the Scottish Government.

Proposals to introduce restrictions on polluting vehicles in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen through low emission zones were due to be in place by December 2020, but have now been pushed back until mid-2022.

In March, Scotland’s councils were released of a legal obligation to double free childcare provision, with 1140 hours of free pre-school education to eligible pupils.

The expansion plans were due to be in place from August, but ministers and council leaders agreed it was “not realistic or reasonable” for the timescale to remain in the wake of the pandemic.

In April the Scottish Government announced it would not be publishing an update to its Climate Change Plan which was due at the end of that month as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.