Here's the key points from the Covid WhatsApp messages debate at Holyrood:

• MSPs rejected the Tory motion and Labour amendment from the Covid WhatsApp debate.
• The Scottish Conservatives used their debating time to call for the first minister and the deputy first minister to be investigated for a potential breach of the ministerial code in the row over Whatsapp messages
• Humza Yousaf and Shona Robison insisted they were co-operating fully with the UK Covid Inquiry and that the Scottish government has now handed over almost 28,000 messages
• Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross believed they deliberately misled Parliament and "chose spin and secrecy over transparency and truth"
• The deputy first minister rejected both the Tory motion and its premise
• Robison accepted her government treated the requests from the UK inquiry "too narrowly" and insisted it was committed to full transparency
• For Scottish Labour, Anas Sarwar accused the government of attempting to withhold vital evidence from the inquiry
• Alex Cole-Hamilton, the Scottish Lib Dem leader, said the Scottish government was "afraid of the light, afraid of the truth that they conceal and afraid of the judgement that would surely follow"

That's all from our live coverage today. Mary McCool was the editor and the writers were Craig Hutchison and Auryn Cox.

MSPs have rejected the Tory motion and Labour amendment from the Covid WhatsApp debate.

The motion called for Humza Yousaf and Shona Robison to be referred to the independent adviser on the Scottish Ministerial Code due to their statements "misleading the parliament".

The Scottish government amendment in the name of the deputy first minister was agreed to, with SNP and Green MSPs joining forces.

63 MSPs backed the amendment and 53 voted against it. There was one abstention.

Philip Sim
BBC Scotland political correspondent

The government is likely to win the votes on today’s debate, simply because they have the numbers to do so.

Of course the other parties will continue to raise questions about how co-operative ministers are being when it comes to inquiries.

These inquiries will run for years – with hearings to be held in Scotland at the start of next year – and leaders will find plenty of opportunities to pick away at the government position.

But ultimately it’s not political opponents that Humza Yousaf will be worried about. It’s the inquiries themselves.

The first minister has held up his hands to the UK inquiry – not the opposition – about having taken “too narrow” a reading of their requests.

As independent inquisitors, acting on behalf of grieving families, the judgement of the inquiries is far more consequential for the government than that of other politicians.

Despite it being very much a forgone conclusion, with the SNP and Greens likely to combine forces to defeat the Tory motion, it's still worth noting decision time is at the slightly later time of 17:10 this evening.

The Scottish Liberal Democrat Leader says Nicola Sturgeon and her advisors seemed to have been systemically deleting messages in what "could be one of the biggest scandals in the history of this parliament".

"Sunlight is the best disinfectant but this is a governing party that is afraid of the light," he says.

"Afraid of the light, afraid of the truth that they conceal and afraid of the judgement that would surely follow."

He adds that he fully expects the SNP and Greens to protect their leaders during today's debate but says if nothing else it will exert greater pressure on the Scottish government to co-operate with the UK Covid Inquiry.

"And by extension bring a degree of closure to the grieving families at the heart of this," he concludes.

Alex Cole-Hamilton begins by thanking the Scottish Conservatives for the debate on this topic and adds that "transparency matters".

"William Douglas reminds us that sunlight is the best disinfectant, without it the rot sets in," he says.

"There is very little sunlight in the Scottish government right now."

He accuses the Scottish government of deliberately slow walking its co-operation with the Covid inquiry, and of secrecy.

He adds that the background reasons as to why decisions were made are as important as the decisions themselves.

The deputy first minister intervenes again to say there are "28,000 messages that have been transferred to the inquiry".

Robison adds that in addition to that will be the individual responses to the inquiry that will no doubt contain messages as well.

Sarwar reiterates the government's WhatsApp messages timeline from the inquiry.

He argues the SNP government has refused to answer even the most basic of questions.

The Scottish Labour leader says the first minister is yet to say how many people did not comply with the do not destroy guidance and how many have deleted messages.

He says the Scottish government is fighting with the inquiry over messages.

"The first minister has lost control of his government and he in my view requires to be referred for investigation into misleading this parliament and trying to cover it up."

The Scottish Labour leader tells the chamber the first minister said any material asked for would be handed over to the inquiries in full.

"His response was either hubris, naivety, incompetence or perhaps all three.

"Regardless it's clear that it must be referred for an investigation into misleading this parliament."

Image source, Getty Images

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar takes the floor.

He says the debate is most importantly about "this SNP government being held accountable for its decisions and conduct during the most tragic event in living memory".

Sarwar insists every ministerial decision weighs heavily in the homes of every family across Scotland.

He accuses the government of attempts to withhold vital evidence from the inquiry.

Douglas Ross asks when Shona Robison was made aware of the request in February for the "full messages".

The deputy first minister says she believed those earlier requests were for decision-making.

"And my statement was made on the basis of that," she adds.

She then says the Labour amendment today makes reference to legal advice provided to the Scottish government during the pandemic.

"The Scottish Ministerial Code explicitly states that Scottish ministers may acknowledge publicly that they have received legal advice on a particular topic, but must not divulge either who provided the advice or its contents whether it is from the law officers or from anyone else," she says.

She points out that the Scottish government has sought an agreement with the inquiries giving them full access to unredacted material that is legally privileged.

She adds her government is committed to full transparency, says she has provided a full timeline of requests to the Scottish government and that her government has maintained a detailed record and evidence of key decisions that were taken during the pandemic.

Ms Robison says the Scottish government are committed to full co-operation with both the Scottish and UK Covid inquiries.

"The reason for this is simple as others have said - learning the lessons from the pandemic is vital to prepare for the future," she adds.

Labour MSP Daniel Johnson interjects to say he struggles to understand why the government misinterpreted the request.

"The context of those decisions is critical and therefore those messages were of course relevant to the inquiry," he says.

He then asks: "So why did the government interpret it too narrowly?"

Ms Robison replies that the focus was on decision-making and providing the record of decision-making.

But she says it was the subsequent request from the inquiry which stipulated for that broader range of context.

"I'm not going to stand here and not say lessons need to be learned," she adds.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton says he does not understand what the Scottish government means when it says it took the requirements "too narrowly".

Ms Robison replies: "In my statement of 31 October, and in answers, I did acknowledge that there had been initial requests from the UK inquiry for messages."

"The Scottish government’s interpretation of the request from the inquiry at that time was that they related, in the main, to decision-making.

"As we have already set out, the Scottish government did not and does not routinely take decisions via messaging services like WhatsApp."

She then points out that her government has supplied almost 28,000 messages to the inquiry on top of the thousands of documents which had already been shared.

Deputy First Minister Shona Robison begins by saying she rejects both the motion put forward by the Scottish Tories and its premise.

"In hindsight we do recognise that the Scottish government interpreted the earlier request for messages from the UK inquiry in a way that was too narrow," she says.

Ms Robinson then apologises to any families that have been bereaved by Covid for any distress which was caused.

Image source, Getty Images

The motion from the Scottish Conservatives reads:

That the Parliament agrees that the first minister and deputy first minister should refer themselves to the independent adviser on the Scottish Ministerial Code for a potential breach of paragraph 1.3(c) of that code, which requires ministers to give "accurate and truthful information to the parliament", on account of their statements misleading the parliament on 31 October 2023 and 2 November 2023, relating to the date of requests for information from the UK COVID-19 Inquiry.

Douglas Ross insists the first minister and deputy first minister have broken the ministerial code and "deliberately misled this parliament".

Deputy Presiding Officer Liam McArthur intervenes to reproach Ross's use of language.

The Scottish Tory leader accuses Yousaf and Robison of deliberately trying to "confuse and muddle" the timeline.

He urges parliament to vote for the Tory motion today.

Douglas Ross says nine months ago the Scottish government were asked for WhatsApp messages but they were only handed over last week.

Ross the deputy first minister said it had only been one month since the messages were asked for by the UK Covid Inquiry.

He says the Scottish government was happy to "spin a different tale until the inquiry called them out".

Ross tells the chamber the first minister said the messages were first asked for in September - and "that is not true, it is a false statement by the first minister to this parliament".

He says the Scottish government ignored requests for messages time and again.

"Humza Yousaf and Shona Robison should be ashamed of their blatant attempt to deceive grieving families who lost loved ones in the Covid pandemic," he adds.

"They chose spin and secrecy over transparency and truth."

Image source, Getty Images

To remind you, Deputy First Minister Shona Robison - making a point of order in parliament - said the UK Covid Inquiry had asked the government to "set out in more detail the full timetable of requests for information of the Scottish government".

In a written statement to parliament, she said:

• The Scottish government was initially asked on 4 November 2022 about WhatsApps and other "informal messaging systems" via a draft request under Rule 9 of the Inquiry Rules 2006.

• On 2 February 2023 the inquiry sent a final version of the Rule 9 request. This included requests for WhatsApp messages relating to the pandemic response and decision-making.

• Ms Robison said similar requests were received in February and March, seeking evidence, including WhatsApp messages, from Scottish government directorates.

• She said draft responses were sent "throughout spring 2023", in which the government insisted all "key decisions and decision-making were recorded on the Scottish government corporate record". No WhatsApp messages were included as part of those responses.

• Those draft responses were finalised in June but the inquiry asked for further information about the use of WhatsApp groups "concerned with the Covid-19 response".

• Ms Robison said that once information concerning those groups was provided, the inquiry then asked in September for those messages to be handed over.

Read more here.

The Scottish Conservative leader points out previous first ministers have referred themselves to the independent adviser and he questions why the current first minister does not do so.

Ross now proceeds to go through the timeline for the Scottish government's WhatsApp messages.

We'll shortly refresh your memory about the detail of the timeline.

The request for the government's WhatsApp messages was first made in February, Ross insists.

He asks if the deputy first minister would like to defend her position, but she does not take him up on the offer of an intervention.

Douglas Ross insists what is said at Holyrood does always matters.

The Scottish Tory leader tells the chamber this is about whether "there was a deliberate attempt to mislead".

He points out ministers who deliberately break the ministerial code will be expected to resign.

If the ministerial code has been breached then the first minister and deputy first minister must do so, he adds.

He says if the government believes there has been no breach of the code then "why on earth" would they not allow an independent review of what was said in the chamber?

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross gets to his feet and begins the debate.

Ross says: "Truth is at the heart of the debate we are proposing today."

He adds bereaved families are seeking to learn the truth about the Covid pandemic.