Long-awaited draft legislation setting out the nuts and bolts of the independence referendum has been published almost six years since First Minister Alex Salmond's SNP was first elected to run the devolved administration in Edinburgh.
It marks the culmination of stalled attempts during the SNP's first term as a minority government and a landmark public consultation, receiving about 26,000 responses.
The Scottish Independence Referendum Bill was formally lodged at Holyrood as Mr Salmond announced that the vote will be held on September 18 next year.
You can read the full Referendum Bill here
He conceded that its provisions would "not come as a great surprise". The 146-page document confirms that the intended question will be: Should Scotland be an independent country?
It sets up a chief counting officer, the campaign rules, spending limits and the layout of the ballot paper.
Addressing Parliament, Mr Salmond said: "The Bill makes clear that the Electoral Commission will have overall responsibility for overseeing the referendum.
"It sets out detailed arrangements for the conduct of the referendum, including arrangements for polling stations, voting and counting procedures and postal and proxy voting. All of these are in line with the procedures for Scottish Parliament elections."
One key difference will be decided in separate legislation needed to extend the vote to 16 and 17-year-olds.
That Bill is already being scrutinised by a Holyrood committee.
Mr Salmond said: "Overall, the Bill ensures that the referendum will be internationally recognised as a fair, open and truly democratic process."
A policy paper issued with the draft legislation confirms the spending limits for the main organisations for and against independence at £1.5 million.
Political parties at Holyrood have been given spending limits of between £150,000 and £1.3 million, with the lower sum the Scottish Green party's maximum and the higher sum the SNP's.
Other permitted participants - individuals or organisations accepted by the Electoral Commission - will be able to spend £150,000.
The legislation is expected to be raked over by MSPs on Holyrood's Referendum Bill Committee between May and June, who will report back in early September.
The first of three votes needed for it to become law will be held in the Scottish Parliament later that month. In October, second-stage scrutiny will take place before the final vote before the full chamber in mid-November.
Royal Assent is expected to be granted in December.
The Bill was made possible by an agreement struck in Edinburgh last year between Prime Minister David Cameron and the First Minister.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article