NICOLA Sturgeon is "very much looking forward" to her first meeting with the Queen since becoming First Minister.

The new SNP leader is to have an audience with the Queen in London in just over a week's time, it has been confirmed.

She will also be sworn in as a member of the Privy Council - a group of advisers to the Queen, most of whom are senior politicians - on December 10.

Ms Sturgeon said: "The discussions that I will have with her majesty will be entirely confidential but I am very much looking forward to the opportunity to meet her."

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "The First Minister will be in London on December 10 when she will be sworn in as a member of the Privy Council and is looking forward to an audience with Her Majesty the Queen on the same day."