A letter formally requesting a second Scottish independence referendum signed by Nicola Sturgeon and dispatched to Theresa May is expected to arrive at Downing Street later.
The Scottish Government tweeted a picture of the First Minister with her feet on a couch in her Bute House residence writing the Section 30 letter on Thursday evening.
MSPs voted by 69 to 59 this week in favour of seeking permission for an independence referendum to take place between autumn 2018 and spring 2019.
Ms Sturgeon said her mandate for another vote was ''beyond question'', and warned it would be ''democratically indefensible and utterly unsustainable'' to attempt to stand in the way.
Scottish Secretary David Mundell has already said the UK Government would decline the request but Ms Sturgeon is pressing ahead with a formal approach for a Section 30 order - the mechanism for the powers to hold a referendum.
The Scottish Government tweet read: ''First Minister @NicolaSturgeon in Bute House, Edinburgh, working on final draft of Section 30 letter to Prime Minister Theresa May.''
The contents of the letter are due to be made public on Friday.
Around 62% of Scottish voters backed the UK remaining part of the EU in June 2016 and the SNP manifesto for last year's Holyrood elections made clear another ballot on independence should take place if there were a ''material change in circumstances'' from the previous ballot in 2014.
The example cited was for Scotland to be removed from the EU against its wishes.
Scottish Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat politicians oppose another referendum and the Prime Minister has repeatedly said ''now is not the time'' for another vote, indicating she will reject the SNP's preferred timetable.
After the vote in the Scottish Parliament, Ms Sturgeon said she would set out her next steps to Holyrood after the Easter recess if she is rebuffed in the Section 30 request.
The vote followed a meeting between Ms Sturgeon and Mrs May in Glasgow on Monday, and came the day before the process for leaving the European Union was formally triggered.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel