CHANGES to Scotland's lockdown rules have been announced by the country's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon this afternoon (Tuesday), including the number of people allowed to socialise outdoors.

Addressing MSPs in the Scottish Parliament, Ms Sturgeon said that four of the current rules were set to change, three of them from Friday.

Due to decreasing cases and the ongoing vaccine rollout, from Friday up to four adults from two households will be allowed to meet outdoors for social and recreational purposes, as well as essential exercise.

As well as in outdoor public places, people will be able to meet in back gardens and only go inside a house if it is essential, such as to go to the back garden or use a toilet.

A similar change affects children aged 12-17. Again, four people will be able to meet outside but it does not have to be from two households.

Also from Friday, outdoor non-contact sports and group exercise will be able to take place.

This includes both adults and children and is restricted to a limit of 15 people.

There will be some flexibility to the travel rules to allow children to take part in outdoor group exercise and to ensure they are not excluded.

The final change, to start on March 26, relates to communal worship.

From this date, communal worship will be able to resume, with limits increased from 20 to 50 should the building allow this with two-metre social distancing.

Ms Sturgeon called the changes "modest but important" and that while Scotland was "firmly on the right path" she could "not afford" to take her "foot off the brake too soon".

She said: "In recent weeks, we have seen a significant fall in new cases, deaths and hospital admissions, and the vaccination programme is progressing beyond our initial expectations.

"All of this is excellent news and provides strong grounds for hope, but that hope must also be balanced by caution.

"The changes announced today, while modest, are important and are designed to help people’s health and wellbeing by enabling group exercise and allowing more social interaction. They will also let children see more of their friends and exercise and play more normally.

"With continued progress, we believe the reopening of places of worship can be achieved relatively safely and will hopefully enable more people to draw strength, comfort and inspiration from acts of collective worship.

"I expect that further, more substantial changes will be possible in the weeks ahead, and I will set out as much detail as I can about that in Parliament next week.

"If the data allows us to relax more restrictions more quickly than we have previously indicated, we will not hesitate to do so.

"We all have a part to play in keeping case numbers down while the vaccinators do their work, children get back to school and we all take tentative but firm steps back to life as we once knew it, so please continue to stay within the rules and follow the FACTS advice."