NICOLA Sturgeon has promised to release the report into whether she lied to parliament and broke the ministerial code on the same day she gets it.

The First Minister gave the commitment to new Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar as he made his debut at FMQs.

She also clashed fiercely with Ruth Davidson over the Government’s failure to disclose legal advice to the parliamentary inquiry into the Alex Salmond affair.

Ms Sturgeon accused the Holyrood Tory leader of having never cared about the women at the heart of the matter, and attacked her yet again for accepting a peerage.

The Scottish Tories accused the Frist Minister of "lashing out and dodging damning questions".

Ms Sturgeon is currently under investigation by the independent adviser on the Code, the former Irish prosecutor James Hamilton QC.

He is looking at whether she misled parliament and failed to live up to her duties in relation to the Salmond affair.

READ MORE: Kate Forbes urged to re-think plans to end building transition tax holiday

Ministers who breach the code are expected to resign, but Ms Sturgeon, who denies wrongdoing, has repeatedly refused to say if she would do so if Mr Hamilton found against her. 

She did so again today when asked if she would live up to her promise in the introduction to the code, in which she says: “I will lead by example in following the letter and spirit of this Code, and I expect that Ministers and civil servants will do likewise.”

Ms Sturgeon also came under fire for the Government's failure to release partial legal advice related to the Salmond affair until hours before she gave evidence to MSPs yesterday, despite two votes of parliament in November demanding its full disclosure.

It took a Tory-led threat of a no confidence vote in her deputy John Swinney to extract the information.

READ MORE: Tom Gordon - The Salmond rollercoaster may be coming to a halt

Mr Sarwar said: "Each day, every one of us comes into the chamber and sits in front of that mace, which is inscribed with the ideals of the Parliament: wisdom, compassion, justice and integrity.

"Principles that have been undermined when the Government failed the women who submitted claims of harassment; undermined by the Government’s refusal to hand over all documentation to the committee that is investigating those failures; and undermined by the Government ignoring two votes by this Parliament calling for all the legal advice to be published.

"The Government keeps telling us that it has nothing to hide, but when the Parliament twice demanded that the legal advice be published, it refused.

"When the advice was finally released, it was partial and came just hours before the First Minister’s committee appearance. Wisdom, compassion, justice and integrity.

"First Minister, why did it take the threat of a no-confidence vote in the Deputy First Minister for your Government to act?"

Ms Sturgeon said: "The importance for all Governments of being able to take proper legal advice should be understood by everybody across the chamber.

"The Government has now - rightly, given the allegations that have been levelled at it -published that legal advice and people can look at it and draw their own conclusions."

Mr Sarwar said: "That answer would have more credibility if all the legal advice had been published before the First Minister gave evidence, not after she gave evidence. 

“Within the coming weeks, James Hamilton QC will present his report on potential breaches of the ministerial code to the Government.

“The outcome of this report will be crucial in establishing the facts about what happened.

“The wholly unacceptable disgraceful situation wer have had with the legal advice cannot be repeated with the Hamilton report. 

“So can the First Minister give the people of Scotland a cast-iron guarantee that the Government will release the report without delay or obstruction on the day it is handed over by James Hamilton QC.”

Ms Sturgeon replied simply: “Yes.”

Mr Sarwar said: “I welcome that commitment from the First Minister, but remember this - we will hold her to that promise because the First Minister is right, this is about transparency and there can be no delay in publishing this report.”

Ms Sturgeon replied: "I will uphold my words in the foreword to the ministerial code. I will uphold the principles on the mace.

"Let us wait and see what the outcome is of the inquiries.

"They will be published, and then we can debate the outcome. I sat before the committee and I answered every question; I will now give the committee and the inquiry the opportunity to do their work."

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon and Ruth Davidson clash over Alex Salmond affair

The ministerial code investigation is separate from the cross-party Holyrood inquiry into the Salmond affair, which is looking at the Government's botched probe into sexual misconduct claims made against the former first minister in 2018.

Mr Sarwar said later: "I’m pleased the First Minister has provided a cast iron guarantee that the government will release the report on the Ministerial Code without delay or obstruction on the day that it is handed over – and we will hold the government to that promise.

“We need to remove party and personality from this.

"A minister – any minister – who is found in breach of the Ministerial Code should resign.”