NICOLA Sturgeon has addressed the Scottish Parliament about the closure of a Borders office employing 380 workers.

As reported yesterday, OVO Energy has revealed it will close its Selkirk site.

At Holyrood today (May 20), Ms Sturgeon said: "I deeply regret the announcement from OVO Energy, which has a huge impact in Selkirk."

OVO has declined to state how many jobs losses are likely in the Borders, with employees being invited to apply for voluntary redundancy first.

The First Minister's comments came after a question from Borders MSP Rachael Hamilton, a Conservative member.

Mrs Hamilton said: "These job losses are devastating for a fragile rural economy like the Scottish Borders and the young people, in particular, will be affected acutely."

She added: "Can I ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to these job losses?

"And in the pandemic lockdown, will the PACE [redundancy] services be operating as normal to support these devastating job losses?"

In reply, Ms Sturgeon said: "We will, through Scottish Enterprise, continue to engage with this company [OVO] – and any company in a similar situation – to consider if there are any actions we can take to prevent or mitigate redundancies and we'll also make sure that PACE [redundancy support] is operational."