The Scottish Government’s “position” on a grooming inquiry will be stated before Christmas, the First Minister has said.

John Swinney denied that anybody was putting their head in the sand, but insisted that there was “no straightforward way through the issue”.

He was once again challenged by the Scottish Conservatives to agree to establish an inquiry at First Minister’s Questions on Thursday.

“This is a very complex issue to which the Government is giving very detailed consideration,” Swinney told MSPs.

Answering media questions later on the likelihood of an inquiry, Swinney added: “We’ll set a position to Parliament before the Christmas recess in a statement which will reflect on where we’ve reached in our analysis.”

The First Minister said he, along with both the justice and educat

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