NICOLA Sturgeon hs confirmed the four nations summit on coronavirus has produced "nothing substantial yet" following the session this afternoon.

Speaking to the BBC, the First Minister said the meeting with the Prime Minister and the First Ministers of Wales and Northern Ireland had been "frank" but positive.

Scottish Secretary Alister Jack said he agreed broadly with Ms Sturgeon's assessment, despite her criticism of the UK Government's attempt at a "power grab".

Ms Sturgeon said: "Both I and indeed the First Minister of Wales made clear that if we are to have good faith discussions about working together where we can then that's not helped by the power grab and the UK Government trying to muscle in on devolved spending."

She added the test of whether the meetings were going to be successful would be "whether it changes any of the decisions of the UK Government that impact on the devolved nations" explaining: "Scottish Government's put forward some very specific suggestions around the extension of furlough, the need for there to be stability and certainty in public spending, for example, the importance of a green recovery, and a number of other things.
I made clear if these summits are going to be worthwhile then we really need to see...not any of us getting everything we asked for, but real progress around these issues."

Mr Jack said nothing had been ruled out when asked about whether the furlough scheme could be extended after September.

The Scottish Secretary said: "What we've said is we have an open mind, as we've had in the past where we've extended it.

"We have an open mind as to the situation we find ourselves in now.

"Who knows where we'll be at the end of September. I hope we will have opened up all of our businesses across the UK, and will be in a much better place, but if a variant comes and gets round the vaccine it effectively puts us back to square one." 

He said the meeting had been "very constructive" and confirmed there would be more taking place.

In support of the union, Mr Jack said the sessions were about how "we can learn from what's happened and how we can work better together, acknowledging that although there are a devolved administrations there are also two governments in those devolved administrations and it's incredibly important that we work constructively together to improve the livelihoods of people."