The final question of the night was about whether Scotland could reach an arrangement similar to the one Northern Ireland now has on access to the European Union single market.

And with that, the first hustings drew to a close - the candidates will next face each other at the Rothes Halls in Glenrothes, Fife, on Friday.

Keep across the leadership debate on the STV News website and social media channels.

Good night

Yousaf: "We have to make sure our staff are well paid and properly paid. We are facing significant recruitment challenges but also retention challenges - there's no point filling up a leaky bucket. You can recruit, recruit and recruit but if people are falling out the other side and we are not keeping them, that's not going to make an iota of difference, so I'm working with the likes of the BMA, Royal College of GPs, others, to see what more we can do around retention."

Regan: "I'm favouring a staff-first approach and what I would do is have a national summit, so I would like to invite the staff in every health board to nominate some people to come along from every discipline and come to this national summit and talk to me, if I'm First Minister, to tell me what needs to change."

Forbes: "We are not empowering those on the frontline sufficiently, they are overworked, they are exhausted and at the moment when it comes to funding, too much of the funding gets caught up in bureaucracy and management, rather than making its way to the frontline."

Forbes: There's a wee group of us that became friends in 2016, that in those early days supported one another, and I count Ash amongst that group of close friends. 

Yousaf: My wife is a councillor, if I do not say her then I will be sleeping on one of your couches tonight, so my wife is of course my best friend in politics.

Regan: I would definitely consider Kate to be one of my pals and we have a little group of people that we all sort of support each other - that would be people like Ruth Maguire, Gillian Martin, Claire Haughey, they are my best pals at Parliament.

What is happening: Kate Forbes, Humza Yousaf and Ash Regan are taking part in the first hustings of the SNP leadership contest at Cumbernauld Theatre in North Lanarkshire.

Who is there? SNP members are putting questions to the three candidates aiming to succeed Nicola Sturgeon. The media have also been permitted to attend after the SNP performed a U-turn - one pool camera is at the venue and the event is being streamed on the STV News website.

What issues have come up? The candidates have fielded questions on Scottish independence, gender reforms, the issue of religious faith and buffer zones. The first question was about perceived misinformation and lies aimed at the party from journalists.

What happens next? Nine hustings are taking place in total across the country. Furthermore, STV News will host a televised debate at 9pm on Tuesday, March 7.  STV political editor Colin Mackay will question candidates before they cross-examine each other.

Regan: I believe it is and it should be. On this panel here we have got two people who have strong religious views. I was actually really upset by the way Kate was being treated by the media last week.

"We need to treat people who do hold views - people who are in a faith and have those views - I would defend their right to hold those views even though I don't hold them myself."

Forbes said: "I feel I have answered more questions on faith in a matter of days than most politicians will ever do in a lifetime. In the last few weeks I have learned a lot, I recognise there are things that I have phrased or framed that I could have done better.

"I do hope in Scotland that our pluralistic and tolerant society can allow for people of faith to rise to the highest office,"

Yousaf said: "For me, it is about the basis by which you legislate. So I'm a proud Muslim, I'm proud of my faith but for me, my faith hasn't been the basis of legislation, of how I make policy because what I've got to do as a legislator, what I've got to do as a policymaker is not just look at what my personal faith is or what my religion is, but what is in the best interests of society as a whole."

We've now moved onto the subject of the UK Government triggering Section 35 of the Scotland Act to prevent the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill from becoming law.

Yousaf said: "We must challenge Section 35. We absolutely have to. This is about the principle of our democracy. If we cave in, if we roll over to a Westminster power grab they will come after legislation after legislation after legislation - they're already threatening to do it - time and time and time again."

Forbes said: "We know that the UK Government are on a mission - they are on a mission to dismantle the devolution settlement, they are on a mission with their muscular unionism to ensure that they hinder as much as possible the work that we are doing.

"Yes, I would seek legal advice but I would far rather sort out the legislation ourselves without having to go to court or without having to seek Westminster's permission."

Meanwhile, Regan said she had a different view on the subject.

She said: "Many of you will know, I was the first and only SNP minister to ever resign on a point of policy - I think that we have really lost the trust of the country on the way that this was handled.

"A range of views were not being listened to and so, no, I wouldn't challenge the Section 35 - not because I think it's OK for the UK to challenge our legislation but for the simple reason that we're going to lose that court case."

Regain said: "I would like to see a system where kids actually go to school a little bit later - maybe seven. I think there is some really good evidence on perhaps changing to more of a kindergarten system and I also think that sometimes we're in a position where we're designing policies and we're starting at the top and we're using consultants, and we're failing to get the implementation right."

At present, children start primary one at the beginning of the Autumn term in the August of the year they turn five-years-old.