NICOLA Sturgeon has said she will be haunted for the rest of her life by how the Scottish Government had – through an error made in good faith – let down two women who had made harassment complaints against Alex Salmond.

The First Minister’s admission came at FMQs yesterday, during a terse exchange with Ruth Davidson, during which the Tory leader at Holyrood said it was Sturgeon’s government who “failed these women so badly”.

She said that her government was responsible for leaking a complainant’s name to someone’s team, and nobody had been sacked or reprimanded.

Neither had the “flawed procedure” been changed, said Davidson, adding: “The First Minister just mentioned a second ago, that six months ago another QC, Laura Dunlop, started a review of the procedure.

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“Our clear understanding is that Ms Dunlop has reported in writing, back to the Scottish Government on her work. So for the sake of confidence in the procedures, will the First Minister publish it now?”

However, Sturgeon said she disputed Davidson’s first claim and had disputed it in committee last week. She was not party to the conversation it was based on and was “limited” in what she could say by legal reasons.

She said what was found to be flawed was the application of the procedure, although the latter itself could have been found to be flawed had a judicial review gone ahead.

“I've not seen Laura Dunlop’s review, it will be published and it will be published in early course once we have seen it", said the First Minister.

“I want everything about this to be open and transparent because I do want to learn lessons as Ms Davidson, perhaps belatedly over recent days has started to talk about the women and I welcome that because that is the issue, right at the heart of this.

“I will be haunted for probably the rest of my life about the way in which the Government through an error, an error made, I think in good faith but nevertheless, an error that let down those women.

“I've apologised for that. I wasn't involved in the investigations I wasn't aware of the errors at the time but as head of the Scottish Government, I take and I feel responsibility for that which is why I think it is so important to cast aside the politics in this and actually focus on the substance.

“That's what I'm determined to do, and that includes a determination to learn any and every lesson that any one of these inquiries, tells us that the Scottish Government needs to learn.”

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Sturgeon had earlier confirmed that plans to ease lockdown are to go ahead as the continued fall in coronavirus cases was giving grounds for “cautious optimism”.

She said primary children will return to school next week as planned along with more senior secondary pupils.

Children in primaries 4-7 will join their younger classmates back in school from Monday.

The First Minister also confirmed that up to four adults from two households will be able to meet outside from tomorrow.

Sturgeon spoke as she revealed the latest Covid-19 figures showed 22 deaths from the virus and 591 positive tests recorded in the past 24 hours.

It brings the death toll under this measure – those who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – to 7483.

Marking the one-year anniversary of the World Health Organisation (WHO) declaring Covid-19 a pandemic, she said there were grounds for optimism.

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“The last 12 months have been incredibly tough – unimaginably tough for everybody.

“But as I indicated on Tuesday, we do now have real grounds for optimism, albeit cautious optimism.

“Case numbers, hospitalisations and deaths have all fallen in recent weeks and when we publish the latest estimate of the R number later today we expect it to show that it remains below one.

“And, of course, the vaccination programme has given a first dose to 40% of the entire adult population and it is set to significantly accelerate over the next few weeks.”