HOLYROOD'S presiding officer has refused to say whether she has received the Referendum Bill that the Scottish Government want to use to hold Indyref2.

The Scottish Greens' co-leader Patrick Harvie earlier this month told The Herald that the legislation would be introduced imminently.

Mr Harvie, who is also a minister in Nicola Sturgeon's government, suggested preparations were being finalised on the document with "one or two hoops" to go through.

He cited one of these obstacles as submitting it to the Presiding Officer Alison Johnstone for scrutiny.

It is her role to examine any bills before they are formally tabled to make sure they are within the powers of the Scottish Parliament.

Asked when the bill will laid before MSPs, he said: "I think there will be an announcement on that before too long. I don't think a date has absolutely been fixed.

"There are one or two hoops the Scottish Government has to jump through before formally laying a bill like submitting it to the Presiding Officer."

Last week The Herald asked the Holyrood authorities if the Presiding Officer had received the bill yet.

But a spokeswoman for Ms Johnstone refused to say whether she had and said the Presiding Officer would make a statement on its competence once the bill had been introduced.

The spokeswoman said: "As required by section 31(2) of the Scotland Act 1998, the Presiding Officer issues a statement on legislative competence on the introduction of any bill.

"It would not be appropriate to comment further prior to the introduction of a bill."

The First Minister said in January she would set out the timing for the Holyrood legislation "in the coming weeks".

But two months on and there has been no update with the chances receding that the bill will be tabled before the recess and even before the local council elections on May 5.

Holyrood breaks up at the end of the month and returns just a few weeks before polling day.

There is speculation around Holyrood whether the First Minister would introduce the bill in the middle of the local election campaign and risk firing up Tory Pro-UK voters just when Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross is anxious about losing council seats.

Both the SNP and Greens have promised to hold Indyref2 in 2023 on the condition the pandemic is over.

However, the legislative path to the vote is uncertain.

With the constitution a reserved matter, the 2014 referendum was held after a process was agreed between the then Prime Minister David Cameron and then First Minister Alex Salmond to transfer powers to Holyrood to hold a legally watertight vote.

As Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly refused to agree to transferring powers under a Section 30 order, Ms Sturgeon has said the Scottish Government will bring in legislation to hold Indyref2 using Holyrood powers.

It is not clear as a matter of law, however, if the Scottish Parliament can unilaterally hold a referendum on independence.

UK ministers have signalled the prospect of taking the Scottish Government to court over a Referendum Bill which it would argue is outwith Holyrood's competence.

Last year, in what some see as a precursor to a legal challenge over Indyref2, the UK Government took the Scottish Government to the Supreme Court over two bills passed by MSPs.

Five senior judges including Lord Reed, the court's Scottish president, unanimously found that two bills passed by MSPs in March were incompatible with the 1998 Scotland Act that underpins devolution.

They said four parts of a bill designed to incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into Scots law and two provisions in one about local government were outside the parliament's legislative competence because they imposed duties on UK ministers in reserved areas.

The bills have returned to Holyrood and are being looked at again by MSPs in a "reconsideration stage" to bring them into line with the court's judgment.

Prof Adam Tomkins, the John Millar chair of public law at Glasgow University and a former Tory MSP, has previously said the ruling "may well prove to torpedo any argument that Holyrood can legislate solo" for a second independence referendum.

Last week children's minister Clare Haughey said the government is investigating “extending” devolved powers so that the bill to protect children’s rights may be deemed legally competent.

The Scottish Government has suggested that officials are looking at whether the devolution settlement can be expanded to accommodate the legislation if efforts to redraw the bill are a failure.