BBC Scotland unveils multi-platform plans to cover Scottish Parliament vote

A leaders debate, daily online live pages, podcasts and rolling results day coverage are among plans unveiled by BBC Scotland for May's Scottish Parliament election.

Leaders of six parties have been invited to take part in a live debate from Paisley Town Hall on 12 April.

Interviews, reports, analysis and BBC Verify fact-checking are also planned across digital, radio and television platforms throughout the campaign with the Your Voice project honing in on issues that matter most to voters.

The main results programme on BBC One Scotland and BBC Radio Scotland will air from 09:30 on 8 May, the morning after the vote, because there will be no overnight vote counting.

Head of news and current affairs Howard Simpson said the corporation was determined to serve audiences with "trusted, high quality election coverage".

He said: "Our principal aim is to be led by the issues that matter most to our audiences.

"The campaign coverage has a level of ambition, scale and geographical reach that will ensure the voting public are kept fully informed as they engage in the democratic process.

"We've built a results service that's fast, comprehensive, and accessible wherever people are.

"Our teams across the country will bring unrivalled reporting, sharp analysis and clear explanations as the picture develops."

BBC News online will be running a daily live page, starting on Tuesday 7 April with news, features and interviews as well as in-depth analysis.

The digital offering will include an online policy grid - an interactive tool giving a summary of where the parties on the issues most important to voters.

Explainers, news round-ups and manifesto digests will be available on a range of social media platforms.

Weekend flagship politics programme The Sunday Show, hosted by Gary Robertson and simulcast on television and radio, will be extended to an hour for the campaign.

Scotcast, the news and current affairs podcast, will continue its series of leader interviews which began last week.

A live Debate Night Leaders Special will take place from 19:00- 20:30 on Sunday 12 April, available on BBC One Scotland and iPlayer.

It will be hosted by Stephen Jardine and the leaders of the Scottish Conservatives, Scottish Greens, Scottish Labour, Scottish Liberal Democrats, Scottish National Party, and Reform UK have been invited.

There will also be three regular Debate Night editions in the campaign, including one with a focus on hearing from younger voters.

On BBC Radio Scotland, there will be a series of interviews on Radio Scotland Breakfast with party leaders who will then stay on to take calls from listeners on the Mornings programme.

Coverage across all platforms will feature Your Voice, a project which aims to amplify audience voices, reflecting what they have to say and the issues that are important to voters

As in 2021, the votes cast on Thursday 7 May will not be counted overnight, so the main results programme will not start until 09:30 on the Friday, on BBC One Scotland and BBC Radio Scotland.

It will be presented by Martin Geissler, with Laura Miller and Gary Robertson in BBC Scotland's Pacific Quay headquarters in Glasgow and Rebecca Curran at Holyrood.

The programme will combine live result declarations, interviews and reporting from every count across Scotland.

There will also be extended teatime and late editions of Reporting Scotland, hosted by Laura Goodwin.

Most of the results are expected to have come in by late afternoon or early evening.

For Gaelic audiences there will be campaign and results coverage on BBC Radio nan Gàidheal's news programming, BBC Alba's daily news programme show An Là, and online at bbc.co.uk/naidheachdan.