Scotland's Chief Medical Officer has briefed Nicola Sturgeon on what she calls a "potentially concerning development", following the news that a new strain of coronavirus was identified in southern England.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock told MPs the number of cases involving the new variant was “increasing rapidly”, and said initial analysis suggested that the variant is growing faster than other existing variants.

After a briefing from Dr Gregor Smith, the First Minister has said the Scottish Government will be monitoring the situation "closely".

READ MORE: Covid: 'New variant' of coronavirus identified in UK

Ms Sturgeon added that government officials would also consider whether any additional precautions would be required in the meantime. 

Meanwhile, one of Scotland’s top medics suggested that the new variant pointed again to the importance of border measures.

The Chair of Global Public Health at Edinburgh University Professor Devi Sridhar stressed that measures such as screening, testing and enforced quarantine were crucial to "prevent continual re-importation of new strains."

She added: "When will UK learn this core lesson?"

Addressing MPs this afternoon, Matt Hancock said: “We have currently identified over a thousand cases of this variant, predominantly in the south of England, although cases have been identified in nearly 60 local authority areas and numbers are increasing rapidly.”

The Health Secretary said there was nothing to suggest the variant was more likely to cause serious disease and he suggested the vaccine should still be effective.

There had been similar variants in other countries and the World Health Organisation has been informed, he added.