How BBC Scotland is covering the general election

Once the polls close at 22:00 on Thursday we will have the first indication of how it has gone when we are allowed to report the findings of an exit poll.

In Scotland the SNP start from a dominant position, holding 48 of the 57 seats being contested, based on new boundaries.

Those boundary changes make it a little harder to make direct comparisons with the 2019 general election.

In order to give a clearer picture, we will be bringing you “notional results” – comparing this year’s result with what would have happened if the current boundaries had been in place five years ago.

The current notional seat totals for the parties are SNP 48, Conservative six, Lib Dems two, Labour one.

Predicting the declaration times is always an inexact science but based on previous elections we expect the first results to start coming in from about 01:30 on Friday.

Rutherglen in South Lanarkshire could be the first to call it, followed by seats like Angus and Perthshire Glens; Kilmarnock and Loudon; and Aberdeen North.

From 02:30 to 04:30 is when the pace is expected to really pick up. In the past about three quarters of the declarations have taken place in this two-hour time slot.

The final results should be coming in at around 07:00. If the pattern from 2019 is repeated, the final Scottish declaration could be Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber.