Opposition politicians have called for greater transparency in the Scottish Government's meetings with other governments over Brexit.

The call comes after St Andrew's House said it held only one email in relation to Nicola Sturgeon's meeting with a German minister, admitting that civil servants "delete routine or administrative emails" and also destroy "paper documents about the mechanics of organising meetings".

STV News submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request seeking communications between the Scottish Government and the office of Michael Roth, the German government's Europe minister.

Sturgeon and Roth met in Berlin on August 9. The visit was not announced in advance of the meeting, with Scottish journalists learning of the visit after the event through a joint press release and a photograph of the principals at the federal foreign office in Berlin.

The German government refused to tell Reuters where the talks were held but admitted they did not take place on federal government property. STV News later revealed that the talks were actually conducted in a restaurant.

When asked to provide STV News with the communications between the two administrations, the Scottish Government originally said the information "did not exist". Following a complaint, civil servants provided a single email regarding the meeting.

A Scottish Government official said: "I should clarify that Scottish Government staff receive a very high volume of email traffic and most will try and immediately delete routine or administrative emails as soon as they are no longer required. This means that many staff will not retain emails or paper documents about the mechanics of organising meetings."

In June, the First Minister declined to publish any legal advice her government received on maintaining Scotland's relationship with the European Union.

Scottish Labour and the Scottish Conservatives have both called on the Scottish Government to provide more transparency in its dealings with European Union institutions and member states.

Labour's external affairs spokesman Lewis Macdonald said "We need to see much more transparency from the SNP government around their meetings in Europe.

"The SNP has consistently refused to publish minutes of meetings or any legal advice they may have commissioned on Scotland's place in Europe.

"That simply isn't good enough. The SNP should be as open and transparent as possible during this process; the Scottish people deserve the facts and the reality."

Conservative chief whip John Lamont said: "After traipsing around Europe and being forced to meet with officials in restaurants and backdoor meeting rooms, it's no wonder the SNP are reluctant to release any information about these trips.

"However Scots have a right to know just what was said in these discussions, and there is a need for more transparency so we can establish exactly what went on."

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "High priority emails and policy documents are maintained but routine email traffic on logistics is not always retained."

When pressed if the Scottish Government had deleted emails or destroyed paperwork in relation to the meeting between the First Minister and the German government, the spokesman referred STV News to previous responses on the deletion policy.

Before succeeding Alex Salmond in Bute House Nicola Sturgeon pledged to be "the most accessible First Minister ever".

In September, she claimed there was "a cloud of secrecy hanging over the UK government's negotiating position" on Brexit and called on Westminster to demonstrate "greater transparency".