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Green MSP Mark Ruskell says he is happy to support the Scottish government's motion and to put forward an amendment that would make the ban legally watertight.

Mr Ruskell says: "Fracking would not only put the brake on climate progress but also stick us into reverse."

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Ms Beamish says it is absolutely welcome to know that fracking is now firmly out of the question.

The Labour MSP says the pressure of her Bill has delivered action from the Scotish government.

She says she will not progress her Bill to ban fracking if the Labour amendment is supported.

Labour MSP Claudia Beamish says this has been a long and hard fought battle.

Ms Beamish says fracking is an unwanted technology.

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Tory MSP Murdo Fraser accuses the government of contempt for science and says it wants us to rely apon imports of fracked gas from wherever that may be

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Murdo Fraser says the Scottish government commissioned its own report and then ignored it and treated it with contempt.

The Tory MSP says: "The SNP government is dancing to the tune of the Green Party rather than listening to the experts and listening to science."

He says importing fracked gas will have no impact on climate change whatsoever.

The minister concludes by saying it is in the public's interest to say no to fracking.

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Mr Wheelhouse says the real threat to the economy is a hard Brexit, bringing laughter from Murdo Fraser.

The energy minister says Mr Fraser may well laugh, but then quotes the 80,000 jobs which may be lost, estimated by the Fraser of Allander Institute.

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Tory MSP Murdo Fraser says the ban means Scotland will import fracked gas from other countries.

The minister says that is a commercial matter for Ineos.

Mr Wheelhouse says he is confident the government's approach allows control of fracking and says the pursuit of legislation would have tied up the parliament.

Mr Wheelhouse says the approach to fracking is a clear deployment of the cautionary principle.

The energy minister says fracking would have made reaching Scotland's climate change targets more difficult.

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Labour MSP Neil Findlay says given there is now an effective ban will the minister release all communications between the government and Ineos around fracking.

Mr Wheelhouse says the Labour MSP can continue to press for information if he wishes to, but provides him with none.

The minister says there is no social licence for unconventional oil and gas to be taken forward at this time.

The "effective ban" on fracking comes almost exactly a year on from the UK government giving the go-ahead to horizontal fracking in Lancashire.

Shale gas is currently processed in Scotland at a site in Grangemouth, having been shipped in from abroad, but cannot be extracted from beneath Scottish soil under the current moratorium, which is enforced through planning regulations.

Mr Wheelhouse said local authorities would be instructed to continue this moratorium "indefinitely" - calling this "action sufficient to effectively ban the development of unconventional oil and gas extraction in Scotland".

He said: "The decision I am announcing today means that fracking cannot and will not take place in Scotland."

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Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse says the government does not support the development of unconventional oil and gas in Scotland and has announced an "effective ban" on fracking.

Mr Wheelhouse details the reports the government used as evidence for this decision.

The minister says the research reports were published in full ahead of the consultation.

The Scottish government has announced an "effective ban" on fracking.

Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse told MSPs that the practice "cannot and will not take place in Scotland".

He said an existing moratorium on the technique, which has been in place since 2015, would continue "indefinitely" after a consultation showed "overwhelming" opposition.

The government will seek Holyrood's endorsement for the ban in a vote following the October recess.

But with only the Conservatives now opposed to a ban, the vote is likely to be a formality.

The move was welcomed by environmental groups but has been slammed by Ineos, operators of the huge Grangemouth petrochemical plant, which holds fracking exploration licences across 700 square miles of the country.

• Scotland and fracking: how did we get here?

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The Scottish government has previously imposed a similar block on underground coal gasification (UCG) - a separate technique used to extract gas from coal seams deep underground - on environmental grounds.

It followed the introduction of a moratorium on both fracking and UCG in 2015, which saw a series of expert reports published on the potential health, environmental and economic impact of the controversial techniques, as well as a public consultation being carried out.

Mr Wheelhouse said the consultation came back with "overwhelming" opposition to fracking, with 99% of the 60,000 respondents supporting a ban. He said this showed that "there is no social licence for unconventional oil and gas to be taken forward at this time".

The Scottish Conservatives said Scotland would miss out on a "much needed economic boost" and high-skilled jobs as a result of the decision.

Tory MSP Dean Lockhart said ministers had ignored scientific and economic evidence to take a "short-sighted and economically damaging decision which is nothing more than a bid to appease the green elements of the pro-independence movement".

However Labour MSP Claudia Beamish said the move did not go far enough, arguing that ministers were merely extending the existing moratorium which "could be overturned at any point at the whim of a minister".

Ms Beamish has a member's bill tabled at Holyrood calling for a "full legal ban", but Mr Wheelhouse said this would not be needed until his proposals.

Image source, Andrew Cowan/Scottish Parliament

The Scottish Greens said the announcement was "a step in the right direction". However, they also wanted a more permanent ban, with MSP Mark Ruskell saying the moratorium was "legally shaky" and open to challenge.

This was also echoed by Friends of the Earth Scotland, with Ms Church saying ministers should "go further than relying on planning powers" and "instead commit to passing a law to ban the fracking industry for good".

Scottish Lib Dem MSP Liam McArthur welcomed the decision, saying that ministers had taken the "scenic route" but had ultimately decided "effectively to ban fracking".

MSPs have previously voted to support a ban on fracking, but SNP members abstained from that vote.

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a technique used to recover gas and oil from shale rock by drilling down into the earth before directing a high-pressure water mixture at the rock to release the gas inside.

Water, sand and chemicals are injected into the rock at high pressure which allows the gas to flow out to the head of the well, where it can be collected.

Fracking allows drilling firms to access difficult-to-reach resources of oil and gas, and has been credited with significantly boosting US oil production.

But opponents point to environmental concerns raised by the extensive use of fracking in the US.

They say potentially carcinogenic chemicals used in the process may escape and contaminate drinking water supplies around the fracking site, although the industry argues any pollution incidents are the results of bad practice, rather than an inherently risky technique.

There have also been concerns that the fracking process can cause small earth tremors.

And campaigners say the transportation of the huge amounts of water needed for fracking comes at a significant environmental cost.

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Under pressure from environmental campaigners, community groups and many grassroots members of its own party, the SNP government at Holyrood announced a moratorium on fracking and a separate process called underground coal gasification (UCG) in 2015.

The moratorium led to UCG - a method of extracting gas from coal seams that are too deep underground for traditional mining techniques - effectively being banned last year after "numerous and serious environmental risks" were identified.

Separate reports into the environmental, health and economic impact of fracking were published a few weeks later, before a full public consultation was held on the issue.

The reports found "inadequate" evidence to draw a firm conclusion on the health impact of fracking, while the probability of "felt earthquakes" was rated as "very small".

The economic report laid out a series of different scenarios, with anything from 470 to 3,100 jobs potentially created, and value added to the Scottish economy to 2062 anywhere from £100m to £4.6bn.

Holyrood had previously voted to support an outright ban on fracking, although SNP members abstained from the non-binding vote - with Labour also launching a members bill which had the same aim.

The Scottish government has officially remained neutral in the fracking debate while it weighed up the evidence for and against.

But First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said in March of last year that she was personally "very sceptical" about fracking and had some "big questions" about the impact it could have on health, the environment and local communities.