Sir Tom Hunter has given his support to a major new charitable initiative between STV and his group The Hunter Foundation.

Sir Tom is looking forward to a project which will see STV highlighting the issue of child poverty in Scotland. Viewers will be able to donate money which will then be distributed amongst six charities.

Sir Tom said: "STV can shine a light on what I would call Scotland’s silent shame - child poverty, where one in four children in our country are living below the poverty line.

"Therefore, STV can give it the media coverage and cover some of the stories which give these kids hope and give them a voice. Hopefully, it won’t be seen as a negative thing but a positive thing where we can show some of the solutions."

On using the resources which STV can provide, he said: "I think it is invaluable to give the kids a voice. The six charities we will be working with do it day in day out, but sometimes there is a vacuum and they sometimes do it without anyone else knowing about it, so STV can give them a voice.

"What we are hoping is that we can pull together all aspects. This isn’t just one person, one organisation that will solve this. This is a coming together of charities, media, private sector.  Hopefully, we will highlight some of the things that really work here and get positive solutions, and really cut out child poverty in Scotland."