Opposing the motion, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon expresses her confidence in John Swinney and describes him as "one of the most decent and dedicated people in Scottish politics".

Applause rings out in the chamber as she hails Mr Swinney's "humility" for admitting he got it wrong and for putting it right.

She adds: "In my book, presiding officer, that is a strength."

Ms Sturgeon continues: "The last few days have been more difficult than they should ever have been for many young people in Scotland.

"I know that and I am sorry. And so is John Swinney."

Mr Leonard argues there has been a "catalogue of catastrophes" under the education secretary.

The Scottish Labour leader says there has been a failure to deliver childcare expansion, get enough cash to councils and his U-turn on getting schools back full-time.

He adds there has also been a narrowing of subject choices, P1 testing persists and children with additional support needs are being failed.

He calls on MSPs to back his motion of no confidence and asks John Swinney to go.

Mr Leonard says his party does not accept Mr Swinney has conducted himself in line with the ministerial code.

"He has failed," argues the Scottish Labour leader who says the education secretary has let students down during the SQA results fiasco.

"As a result Mr Swinney no longer commands the confidence of this chamber."

He insists the education secretary only jumped into action when he thought his job was on the line.

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard gets the debate under way by saying the vote of no confidence in Mr Swinney is not about personalities or retribution.

Mr Leonard argues it about a "time of reckoning" for a long line of failures.

More importantly it is about the future of our schools, of our pupils, of Scottish education he insists.

Education Secretary John Swinney will shortly face a no-confidence motion at Holyrood over the exams controversy but the vote is expected to be defeated.

The Scottish Conservatives, Scottish Labour and the Lib Dems want him to resign after thousands of teacher estimates were downgraded.

But the Scottish Greens have said they will not support the motion, following a government U-turn.

They said they were satisfied now that teacher estimates have been reinstated.

Image source, PA Media

The proceedings will kick off at 3.20pm when John Swinney will face the motion of no confidence debated first by MSPs.

The crucial vote is expected at 4.20pm.

You can watch all the proceedings in parliament here on the live page with us.

• Read more here
• Swinney insists U-turn not about saving his job
• Scottish pupils have results upgraded

If you are just joining us here are the main points that emerged from today's coronavirus briefing:

• The R number may have been as high as 1.3 last week

• The first minister confirmed a Peterhead primary school was closed after a positive case

• She also stressed the pupils of Bannerman High School in Glasgow who tested positive never visited the school and are now self-isolating

• Everyone on Orkney should 'guard against complacency' says Sturgeon as a cluster is investigated there

Image source, bb

• there were no new deaths with Covid in Scotland, but there were 47 new cases of Covid-19 confirmed
• New data showed house parties were beginning to present a considerable risk
• Alpha Solway, a company in Dumfries, has won a £53m PPE contract with NHS Scotland

• The Scottish government is publishing its framework for how it is going to support people through recovery and rehabilitation after coronavirus

Image source, Calmac

Extra staff have been brought in to manage traffic on the ferry between Largs and the island of Cumbrae due to its popularity with day trippers.

The sailing, along with operator Caledonian MacBrayne's other routes, is running at a reduced capacity due to coronavirus restrictions.

That has resulted in people queuing for up to three hours to get onboard.

On two occasions in recent weeks, sales of day-return tickets were stopped because of the high demand.

Read more here.

James Gallagher
Health and science correspondent, BBC News

Image source, ORBON ALIJA/GETTY IMAGES

There is a simple but crucial number at the heart of understanding the threat posed by the coronavirus.

It is guiding governments around the world on the actions needed to save lives and to lift lockdown.

It is called the reproduction number, or simply the R value.

Read more here.

Image source, Getty Images

A south of Scotland firm has secured a £53m personal protective equipment (PPE) contract which promises to create 200 new jobs.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the deal would see Dumfriesshire-based Alpha Solway supply NHS Scotland.

It will provide 232 million surgical masks, six million respirator masks and two million visors.

Ms Sturgeon said it was an important step in ensuring secure supplies of PPE for the "foreseeable future".

Read more here

The moderation of A-level results is proving to be a thorny issue south of the border.

Head teachers are warning of "volatility" and that some lowered grades seem to be "unfair and unfathomable".

Last week the adjustment of teacher estimates for SQA results forced the Scottish government into an embarassing U-turn, by accepting all the original teacher grades.

But our correspondent Nick Eardley says it will be difficult for the UK government to do likewise.

Education Secretary John Swinney will face a no-confidence motion at Holyrood later over the exams controversy but the vote is expected to be defeated.

• Read more here
• Swinney insists U-turn not about saving his job
• Scottish pupils have results upgraded

Image source, SQA

Here's this afternoon's schedule for Covid business at Holyrood:

• 2pm: Portfolio questions in parliament
• 3.20pm: Swinney faces a motion of no confidence debated first by MSPs
• 4.20pm: The crucial vote is at decision time

You can watch all the proceedings at Holyrood here on this live page with us.

The first minister began by paying tribute to those who died in yesterday's train derailment and sending her thoughts to their bereaved families.

On coronavirus, she said that early indications were that the R-number, or rate of transmission of Covid-19, had risen above one in Scotland last week.

Nicola Sturgeon also told the briefing;

• there were no new deaths with Covid in Scotland, but there were 47 new cases of Covid-19 confirmed
• 26 of the 47 new cases reported today are in the Grampian area
• 182 of these are likely to be associated with the cluster linked to Aberdeen pubs and 961 contacts have now been identified
• She confirmed a Peterhead primary school was closed after a positive case

• She also stressed the pupils of Bannerman High School in Glasgow who tested positive never visited the school and are now self-isolating

• Everyone on Orkney should 'guard against complacency' says Sturgeon as a cluster is investigated there

Image source, bb

• New data showed house parties were beginning to present a considerable risk
• Alpha Solway, a company in Dumfries, has won a £53m PPE contract with NHS Scotland
• The R number may have been as high as 1.3 last week
• The Scottish government is publishing its framework for how it is going to support people through recovery and rehabilitation after coronavirus

Image source, Getty Images

Daniel Sanderson from The Telegraph asks what powers Police Scotland has to break up house parties?

Ms Sturgeon says she is trying to strike a balance between police enforcement and encouraging people to do the right thing.

Where it is deemed necessary, if there's a problem with compliance, she will seek to increase police powers to allow the rules to be enforced, she adds.

"This is on all of us - it's our responsibility as individual citizens... to stop the virus being able to spread."

Image source, get

Gina Davidson from The Scotsman asks if we are looking at another national lockdown given the recent uptick in cases.

"I'm not contemplating right now another national lockdown," replies the first minister.

However Nicola Sturgeon adds: "I can't stand here during the midst of a global pandemic and rule anything out."

She says she wants to do "everything possible" to avoid another national lockdown.

Image source, Getty Images

In response to a question from The Sun, Nicola Sturgeon says the answer is likely to be "a bit of both".

She says the World Health Organisation (WHO) says that one measure, external which can indicate whether an epidemic is under control is whether, with a comprehensive testing system, less than 5% of samples return a positive for Covid-19 over two weeks.

At this stage, she says, we are "well under that" - although the prevalence is a bit higher in the past few weeks than it was before that.

Image source, Getty Images

Alan Smith from Bauer asks for an updated estimate of how many people in Scotland may have contracted the virus.

Scotland's chief's medial officer, Dr Gregor Smith says serum surveillance can show there has been exposure to the virus.

He says the latest report show a very small number are still being exposed to the virus, probably about 4-5% of the population.