An adviser to Ms Sturgeon told civil servants that Ms Sturgeon would “no longer be personally monitoring her MSP account”

Nicola Sturgeon has been using her SNP email account to conduct state business for years despite strict rules separating government and party.

Civil servants must ensure that all government business is conducted through formal channels, but in 2015 a SNP adviser told officials that the only email used by the first minister would be her party address.

They were instructed to direct routine correspondence to her private secretary and direct urgent matters to her SNP account.

The revelation has intensified suspicions that Ms Sturgeon is seeking to avoid scrutiny by using email accounts that may not always to be subject to freedom of information (FoI) requests.

Ms Sturgeon revealed last month that she rarely uses email and “conducts most government business on paper”.

Civil servants