FIRST Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said she is officially launching a new independence campaign, while speaking to the BBC.

As she looks to publish her vision for an independent Scotland on Tuesday, the First Minister was asked whether she was now formally beginning her campaign for an upcoming independence referendum.

She replied: “Yes.”

Sturgeon also restated her commitment to holding a referendum by the end of next year.

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She added: "Had we known in 2014 everything we know now about the path the UK would have taken then, I've got no doubt Scotland would have voted Yes back then."

Sturgeon took the opportunity to shed light on what the upcoming papers in the Building A New Scotland series would entail.

While the first is said to be a “scene setter”, the First Minister added that future papers would touch on issues such as currency, Scotland’s economic position, social security and pensions, defence and EU membership.

The First Minister has said any upcoming decision made in a referendum “must be an informed choice”.

She said: "The conclusion very clearly is that Scotland could be doing much better as an independent country... Nobody right now can look at the UK – the mess it's in currently and its prospects for the UK outside of the European Union – surely, and conclude anything other than that Scotland can do better as an independent country."

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When she was asked if a timetable on the holding of a vote would be made public tomorrow, Sturgeon said that it would not but that she would “say more about that in the weeks to come”.

And while fleshing out the issues related to securing a date for a vote and the intricacies of making a Section 30 request for a referendum, Sturgeon said: “I need to recognise that we’re dealing right now with a UK Government that respects neither democracy nor the rule of law.”

The First Minister added that she would be looking to “navigate our way towards a lawful process”.