Ebola nurse Pauline Cafferkey has been cleared of professional misconduct during her return to the UK.

A Nursing and Midwifery Council disciplinary panel heard allegations the Scot "potentially put the public at risk" as she passed through screening at Heathrow on arrival from Sierra Leone in late 2014.

The panel also heard claims the conduct of the medical worker, from Cambuslang in South Lanarkshire, had "undermined" public trust and confidence in the nursing profession.

The 40-year-old nurse's legal team pointed to her "previously unblemished record" and insisted the legal threshold for a finding of misconduct against her had not been met.

On Wednesday, the panel resumed its deliberations before delivering its verdict.

It found Ms Cafferkey's actions did not amount to misconduct after the fitness to practise hearing.

After the hearing, a statement on behalf of Ms Cafferkey by her lawyer said she was faced with "chaotic scenes" when she touched down at Heathrow and would "never knowingly" put anyone's life in danger.

The lawyer added Ms Cafferkey was "relieved the process is at an end".

She faced three allegations of professional misconduct relating to her return to the UK on December 28, 2014.

These were allowing an incorrect temperature to be recorded at Heathrow, leaving the terminal without providing her correct temperature and of failing to inform Public Health England workers she had recently taken paracetamol.

Ms Cafferkey was among a group of doctors and nurses returning to Heathrow on December 28, 2014, after a six-week deployment to the west African country.

In agreed evidence put before the panel, it was said screening staff from Public Health England (PHE) at the airport "were not properly prepared to receive so many travellers from at-risk countries" and this resulted in the area being described as "busy, disorganised and even chaotic".

The hearing was told a doctor took Ms Cafferkey's temperature and found it to be up to 38.3C (100F).

A high temperature can be an early sign of an infection.

The evidence states: "Doctor one says that registrant A (someone else in the group) stated at this point that she would record the temperature as 37.2 degrees on Ms Cafferkey's screening form and then they would 'get out of here and sort it out'."

Ms Cafferkey said she could not remember who said it or who entered the lower temperature on her form.

She admitted taking paracetamol after she realised she had an elevated temperature.

The nurse was eventually cleared for onward travel, arrived in Glasgow late in the evening and awoke feeling "very unwell" the following day, December 29 2014.

She was diagnosed with Ebola - with one of the highest viral loads ever recorded - and spent almost a month being treated in an isolation unit at London's Royal Free Hospital.

Medics said the early symptoms would have impaired her judgment and an allegation she had acted dishonestly at Heathrow was dropped on Tuesday.

In submissions on Tuesday, the NMC said Ms Cafferkey "potentially put the public at risk" through her actions and that her conduct had "undermined" public trust and confidence in the nursing profession.

Anu Thompson, representing the NMC, did not dispute Ms Cafferkey had been acting for the public good in providing humanitarian assistance in Sierra Leone.

Ms Thompson said there were significant mitigating circumstances in Ms Cafferkey's case but told the panel: "The fact that she was suffering from the early onset of the virus cannot absolve her of all responsibility for her conduct, nor can it remove her understanding or knowledge of the disease."

Describing the potential risk as "significant", she asked the panel to make a finding the nurse's fitness to practise is impaired "to protect the public and protect the public interest".

The nurse's legal team pointed to her "previously unblemished record" and insisted the legal threshold for a finding of misconduct against her has not been met.

Joyce Cullen told the panel that, in going to Sierra Leone, Ms Cafferkey had strengthened the reputation of the profession.

Ms Cullen pointed to the fact that, at the time of the screening, Ms Cafferkey was exhausted after completing a 22-hour journey to London.

She was "very likely to be substantially impaired" as a result of exhaustion and the early effects of the Ebola virus, the panel was told.

Ms Cafferkey went on to have two further admissions to hospital - one with a relapse of the Ebola virus and the other with chronic meningitis.