Plans to close three police call-centres will be suspended until a new area control-room is fully operational, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

The First Minister said the Scottish Government would delay plans to shut the Aberdeen, Inverness and Dundee call-centres, as recommended by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS).

Justice Secretary Michael Matheson directed HMICS to examine call handling following the deaths of John Yuill and Lamara Bell, who lay undiscovered for days despite a sighting of their wrecked car being reported to a police control-room.

The interim report said the remaining personnel in the understaffed Aberdeen, Inverness and Dundee call-centres are facing ''unacceptably high'' pressures and the practice of diverting overflow calls to the central belt is creating additional risk to the public.

It recommended the centres "be maintained and staffed appropriately'' until a planned new area control-room in Dundee is fully operational.

Ms Sturgeon confirmed to MSPs at Holyrood that the recommendations of the report will be accepted by the Government.

She said: "The interim review, and I should stress that it is an interim report, has one recommendation that says that detailed planning towards the end state of the modernisation process should continue.

"However, the current service centres in Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness shouldn't close until Govan, Motherwell and Bilston Glen are fully capable of taking additional calls from the north, and until the new area control centre is Dundee is fully operational."

With Police Scotland hit by a series of controversies over the summer, all three opposition leaders pressed Ms Sturgeon on policing at First Minister's Questions at Holyrood.

Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale said: "In the two years since Police Scotland has been established, we have seen searches on children spiralling out of control. We have seen police counters closed. We have seen allegations of spying on journalists, police armed without the consent of this Parliament or the Scottish people and two tragic deaths."

In the wake of the deaths of Mr Yuill and Ms Bell, she said the Scottish Government had "closed ranks with the top brass" in the police force and "let rank-and-file police officers take the blame"

Scottish Labour called for the call-centre closure plans to be suspended "months ago", Ms Dugdale added.

The First Minister told her: "We were all shocked and saddened by the circumstances surrounding the deaths of John Yuill and Lamara Bell, and my thoughts and all of our thoughts continue to be with their families.

"Police Scotland have already apologised and on behalf of the Scottish Government I also want to say how deeply sorry I am for what those families are going through.

"The review that the inspectorate is carrying out, and I would ask members to remember this, was instructed by the Justice Secretary to look at specifically the capacity and the capability of control-centres, and the processes within those control-centres.

"In short, to identify whether there are any systemic issues that we need to address.

"The interim review, and I should stress that it is an interim report, has one recommendation that says that detailed planning towards the end state of the modernisation process should continue.

"However, the current service-centres in Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness shouldn't close until Govan, Motherwell and Bilston Glen are fully capable of taking additional calls from the north, and until the new area control centre is Dundee is fully operational."

She added: "There have been questions around Bilston Glen, in particular, but since March Police Scotland has had an active recruitment campaign, it has had 1,600 applications received, recruitment and training is now under way, and around 40 new starts are undergoing training each month.

"So, improvements are being made.

Ms Dugdale continued her attack, claiming: ""The police force in Scotland is weaker under this government."

She stated: "The First Minister sits in her seat today because of populist policies like 1,000 extra police officers.

"But we know that civilian staff members have paid the price for that policy. The latest figures show that since 2011 the total number of staff in the police force has dropped by nearly 2,000 individuals.

"Does the First Minister not realise how damaging that has been to the police in this country? Does she not understand how much harder that has made their jobs?"

Ms Sturgeon said Scottish Labour's manifesto in 2011 had pledged to create a national police force.

The SNP leader told MSPs: "Before we have a complete re-writing of history, I just want to tell the chamber what was in Scottish Labour's manifesto in the 2011 election.

"They said they would increase administrative efficiencies and free up resources for the frontline by legislating to deliver a single police force for Scotland.

"In other words, Labour called on the Scottish Government to do exactly what we have."

Ms Dugdale responded: "The Scottish Labour Party manifesto did support the creation of a national police force - what she won't find in that manifesto is any plan to cut 2,000 civilian staff."

Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said the pressures on police control-rooms raised in the HMICS report had not "come out of the blue".

"They were predicted as a direct consequence of this government's centralisation agenda," she said.

"The then justice minister was warned that this would happen, the Scottish Police Authority was warned that this would happen and the Scottish Government was warned that this would happen. Why did nobody take any notice?"

She added: "Two years in and this government's record on police reform is call-centres cut to the bone with tragic consequences, a stop-and-search policy that may not even have been legal and a hand-picked police chief who has walked away from it all."

Ms Sturgeon pointed out that the Tories had also, in their 2011 manifesto, committed to maintaining police officer numbers by merging Scotland's eight police forces.

The First Minister said the recommendations set out by HMICS in the report would be implemented.

She said: "These issues are serious, that is why the serious response that Michael Matheson has taken is the right one and we will respond to all of the recommendations.

"But I am not surely hearing either Ruth Davidson or Kezia Dugdale say today that having been in favour of a single police force, they would have left the number of call-centres that services eight police forces exactly as they were."

Ms Sturgeon also welcomed the report of the advisory group led by solicitor advocate John Scott QC on consensual or non-statutory stop and search.

It recommended an end to the controversial tactic once a statutory code of practice covering statutory stop and search is in place.

She added: "It would be our intention when that code of practice is in place to bring an end to non-statutory stop and search."

Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie called for an independent investigation into claims of a "target culture" within Police Scotland.

"After repeatedly warning about Police Scotland, the Scottish Government is finally beginning to act," he said.

"An end to industrial scale stop and search, a proper examination of the serious problems in Police call handling and a review of how Police Scotland should be held to account.

"Progress at last, but my fear is that her plans do not go far enough.

"Individual officers have told me that the pressure is on them to meet the nationally-imposed targets, rather than concentrate on the specific needs of their community."

He added: "Concerns about call-centres and stop and search were initially dismissed, but were completely justified.

"Top-down targets are what led to industrial stop and search and I don't want the First Minister to dismiss the concern about the target culture in Police Scotland that exists today.

"The staff survey report will make uncomfortable reading. She heard the concerns when she was with me at the Scottish Police Federation conference in spring."

He urged the First Minister to commission an independent investigation into the "target culture".

Ms Sturgeon said: "Operational matters are for the police, but the limits of police authority are matters for parliament to define and to decide.

"We will, given where we are with the merger of the police forces and the experience to date, have a review of national governance."

She added: "I want to make sure that we have in this country what I believe we have, and what we have always had, a police service that is focused on keeping people and communities in our country safe.

"We have crime at a 40 year low but that does not mean that we dismiss or not listen to concerns that are raised, and we will not do that, but it does mean that as we do that we should remember the achievements of our police service and make sure we thank each and every one of them for it."