The 126 pages of guidance covered each minister’s preferences for their meetings, engagements, speeches, letters and briefings.

The detailed list of demands included the font and size of type they wanted for their speeches, whether they wanted a lectern or microphone, if jokes should be added and any banned phrases. The latter included “I’m afraid”, with “unfortunately” suggested as an alternative.

Specific instructions were also provided for particular ministers, with Lorna Slater, the other Green minister, asking that officials ensure that she can get to her engagements by bicycle or public transport.

If she chooses to cycle to an event, her officials were warned to “ensure there is an appropriate area to leave it on arrival and opportunity to change to outdoor wear as appropriate”.

Her civil servants were also told that draft speeches for “significant events” should be provided a full two weeks in advance to allow time for her to “consider and provide feedback”.

Similarly, they were warned it is “very difficult to accommodate invitations that are sent less than two weeks in advance of any events” and not to draft answers to oral parliamentary questions that are more than 97 words long.

Although the Scottish Government insisted that Mr Harvie did not use a ministerial limousine, his officials were ordered to ensure that briefings on the location of his engagements are sent to the “government car service”.

Meanwhile, civil servants working for John Swinney were warned that the Deputy First Minister “does not like casual language” in parliamentary answers and correspondence. For example, they are told, he “prefers ‘I am’ to ‘I’m’ and prefers ‘did not’ to ‘didn’t’”.

SNP would ‘rather grandstand than have failures exposed’

Ms Sturgeon has her own specialist speechwriting team, but the briefing went into detail about how her engagements should be organised, with officials ordered to prepare biographies on anyone she had not met before.

They were also warned that any briefings “should tell the First Minister what she needs to know – it should not repeat information that she is already aware of”.

Stephen Kerr, the Scottish Conservative chief whip, said: “I’m not surprised to hear that SNP ministers don’t want to ‘get bogged down in policy’ because under close scrutiny, so many of their policies unravel.

“They would far rather grandstand and talk in generalities than risk having their litany of failures on the likes of education, drug deaths, the economy, health, ferries and the environment exposed.

“Then there’s their perennial go-to: pushing for another divisive independence [referendum] and cranking up constitutional grievance with Westminster. The SNP strategy is obvious and transparent: ‘Do anything to deflect from our own, extensive failings’.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Speeches are just one of many important tools ministers use to communicate government policy and priorities clearly and efficiently to the public.

“Effective communication is an essential role of government, especially in a global pandemic. The Scottish Government will continue to use all the communication tools at our disposal to keep infection rates as low as possible, and support our recovery from Covid.”