JAMES Hamilton's official report into whether or not Nicola Sturgeon broke the ministerial code spans 61 pages. Here's what you need to know.

1) Nicola Sturgeon put herself forward for investigation over allegations that she'd broken the ministerial code of conduct by failing to "feed back the basic facts of meetings and discussions held with Alex Salmond" over claims about his conduct to her private office.

It was found that no breach had been committed.

2) Sturgeon told the Scottish Parliament she'd first learned of the claims about Salmond on April 2, 2018, but didn't tell the civil service until June 5.

But the Irish QC said that's not a rule breach under the letter of the code.

While Hamilton said it was "regrettable" that Sturgeon hadn't told MSPs about the meeting, he said he found it "difficult to think of any convincing reason" for her to deliberately conceal it, describing the omission as "the result of a genuine failure of recollection" and calling it "not deliberate".

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon cleared - but these UK ministers had to quit over conduct

3) Rules pertaining to the conduct of special advisors "may need some further revision" in light of the adoption of the procedure for handling complaints against ministers and former ministers, Hamilton says.

It was brought in at the end of 2017, but the rules on special advisers haven't been updated since March that year.

"Consideration might also be given to whether some of the provisions of the ministerial code which apply to ministers should also apply with appropriate modifications to special advisers, for example, the requirement to record external contacts," Hamilton said.

4) Alex Salmond has asked for an investigation into whether an alleged criminal leak of part of the contents of claims against him came from the First Minister's office.

Hamilton says this is "no part" of his work and "if Mr Salmond has evidence to support this complaint he should refer the matter to the police".