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Scotland's economy began to contract as soon as coronavirus lockdown measures were imposed.

Gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 2.5% in the first quarter of the year, with provisional figures for April showing an 18.9% decline.

A more dramatic contraction is expected in the next set of figures for Scotland, reflecting the suspension of much economic activity.

Figures for the UK as a whole showed a 20.4% decline in April.

The largest declines came in the production sector, particularly manufacturing.

What is GDP and how is it measured?

The cancellation of Scotland's T20 international with Australia due to be played at The Grange, Edinburgh, on 29 June, has just been announced.

The Australian cricket team are scheduled to play three T20s and three one-day internationals against England in July but there have been talks about moving the tour to September.

Holyrood Live
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Holyrood's COVID-19 Committee

Highland Council chief executive Donna Manson hits out at "unpleasant behaviour" by some local people during the coronavirus pandemic.

Ms Manson tells MSPs on Holyrood's Covid 19 committee that some EU citizens who had lived in the region for years had been told that they should be "going home".

She also criticises local people who have put up posters telling tourists or second home owners to stay away, describing it as "really unpleasant stuff".

The Highland Council chief executive says strong national messaging had helped prevent these sort of incidents from escalating.

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BBC Radio Scotland

Geetha Marcus,Senior Lecturer in Education at Queen Margaret University, says outlining plans for blended learning has been "a bit of a PR disaster".

There are several scenarios, she points out, the best being everyone can go back safely in August, with the worst another lockdown, where we are all back to square one. In the middle, she says, are "several contingencies".

Ms Marcus says that the whole thing highlights "long-standing disparities" within Scottish education and the different way local authorities act.

• School return plans to be scrutinised by inspectors
• How will the new school term look in your area?
• What is a blended model of learning?
• Scottish schools to reopen in August

Mornings with Kaye Adams
BBC Radio Scotland

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Thomas is a pupil from Glencoe planning on going into his sixth year in August.

He calls in to Radio Scotland to say his teachers have been good at providing help as he works from home. However, he does think more could done by the SQA.

"They could give us our grades back and let us know whether we've even passed the stuff we did last year," he says. "We are currently working blindly. We could have failed our subjects and we wouldn't know. It just kind of feels that it all came to nothing last year."

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Holyrood's health committee

The deployment of mobile diagnostic units is being considered by NHS Scotland as the focus turns to remobilising services.

The move could see CT and MRI scanning units travel around Scotland by the end of July.

NHS Scotland chief executive John Connaghan, giving evidence to Holyrood's health committee, says a "close eye" is being kept on capacity within NHS boards to begin to address the backlog.

Health boards have been asked to look at reestablishing key diagnostic services by the end of July, while the focus from then on March 2021 will be on tackling the backlog he says.

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Readying Aberdeenshire's schools for reopening under social distancing rules could cost up to £10m, the council leader has said.

The authority is currently working up plans for how to manage the job of educating children at more than 170 schools.

Its blended learning proposals have seen some parents told their children could be in school for less than a third of the time.

Council leader Jim Gifford said even a slight relaxation of distancing rules would be a major help in allowing pupils more time in school.

Douglas Fraser
Scotland business & economy editor

At least the wind blew, and electricity production was on the rise in the first three months of the year.

The rest of the economy was veering into its deepest slump on record, down 2.5% in January to March, and a first estimate for April suggesting an 18.9% drop.

When people are told to stay at home, shops and workplaces are closed and travel strongly discouraged, that should come as no surprise. It was only slightly less severe than the UK figure for April, of 20.4%.

Transport and manufacturing faced the bigger declines from the early months. The oil and gas sector was also in retreat, after the oil price began to plummet from 6 March. Hospitality, arts and culture that faced the biggest hit in April, with little activity allowed.

Relying on drawing people together, to eat drink and be entertained, these are also the sectors that face the longest wait for permission to open up again.

Mornings with Kaye Adams
BBC Radio Scotland

Michael Marra, from the parent-led campaign Better Than This, has written to the Children and Young People's Commissioner Scotland asking if the government is meeting its legal obligation to provide education under the 'blended learning' proposals.

Mr Marra, from Dundee, says his grandchild has been offered a pattern of one day a week in the classroom, followed by two days the following week.

"It doesn't look that different from what's happening now," he tells BBC Radio Scotland.

"Teachers are doing their best but there is no real support for home learning. There needs to be a national plan for an emergency online curriculum and we need to make sure every pupil has access to it.

"Schools say they simply don't have resources to use other spaces. These issues have been devolved to head teachers to sort out."

Education is almost certain to dominate FMQs today, join us here for extensive coverage from 12.20pm.

• School return plans to be scrutinised by inspectors
• How will the new school term look in your area?
• What is a blended model of learning?
• Scottish schools to reopen in August

Holyrood Live
BBC Parliaments

Holyrood's health committee

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman says there was not fragility in the supply chain for PPE, but it was "sorely tested" when the volumes being ordered had to be scaled up and routes diversified.

Regarding the whole system response involving both health and social care, the health secretary says the initial response was on the assumption that 80% of the population would be infected and 4% of them would need to be hospitalised.

This required a remobilisation and refocusing of the NHS, she adds.

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Ms Freeman tells MSPs the government was "aware" of vulnerability within social care and suggests assumptions on the level of infection prevention and control were "too strongly made".

It later became clear residential care homes needed sufficient additional support to ensure infection prevention and control measures were in place.

The new statistics show that Scotland’s GDP is provisionally estimated to have fallen by 18.9% during April, after a fall of 5.0% in March.

This indicates the direct economic impact of COVID-19 in Scotland during the first weeks and full month of the lockdown phase.

• The Monthly GDP Estimate for April, external

The new monthly GDP statistics are designated as experimental official statistics, which means that they are still in development but have been released to enable their use at an early stage.

Change in GDP is the main indicator of economic growth.

• Further information on GDP statistics, external

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Holyrood's health committee

Scotland's health secretary rejects the suggestion Scotland did not have a pandemic testing strategy in place.

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She also insists there was not a failure to consider mass testing, but the strategy was adapted as we moved further into this pandemic.

Ms Freeman tells MSPs the strategy changes in response to an increase in testing capacity and better understanding of how the virus behaves and how to suppress it.

Scotland’s GDP fell by 2.5% during the first quarter of 2020.

Over the year, compared to the first quarter of 2019, the economy has contracted by 2.3%.

During the first quarter:

• output in the construction sector contracted by -3.4%
• output in production contracted by -3.3%
• output in the services sector contracted by -2.2%

The First Estimate of GDP for Quarter 1, external

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Holyrood's COVID-19 Committee

The chief executive of Highland Council has told MSPs that she’s concerned about the costs of implementing the Scottish government’s plans for schools after the summer holidays.

Donna Manson tells Holyrood’s COVID-19 Committee that implementing ‘blended learning’ – where pupils are distanced and split time between school and home learning – could have an “impact on other council services”.

She adds the Scottish government’s announcement that they expect pupils to spend 50% of their time in school had sent the council into “a bit of a flurry”, and that not all schools were yet in a position to offer this.

Mornings with Kaye Adams
BBC Radio Scotland

We need alternative plans for schools in place now in case things don't return to normal in August, argues Lindsay Paterson, Professor of Education Policy at Edinburgh University.

"I don't blame the politicians, I think they are trying to do their best, but there is a lack of leadership from the national education quangos, especially Education Scotland and the Scottish Qualifications Authority." he tells BBC Radio Scotland.

"Some local authorities are doing very well, but some could be doing a lot more."

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Prof Paterson says: "If children are attending school two days a week, what happens on the other three days? That's what we need to be concentrating on. At the moment, there is a complete lack of imagination on this.

"I think we need a massive requisitioning of community halls that are not getting used, universities will have spare capacity. Take them over, ensure there is WiFi access and recruit retired teachers and trainees to supervise.

"It will free parents to get back to work and provide a studious atmosphere.

"People will say there are insurance and health and safety issues but surely there are ways round these obstacles."

• How will the new school term look in your area?

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Holyrood's COVID-19 Committee

The committee is taking evidence from stakeholder groups on moving out of lockdown.

MSPs are taking evidence from:

• Donna Manson, from Highland Council;
• Clare Slipper from NFU Scotland;
• Nick Sharpe from Scottish Renewables

Image source, Scottish Parliament TV

and then from:

• Helen Martin from the STUC;
• David Lonsdale from the Scottish Retail Consortium

You can watch the evidence session here with Scottish Parliament TV, external.