Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has called on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to grant Holyrood the power to hold a second vote on Scottish independence.
She has formally written to Mr Johnson, calling for a Section 30 order to be granted.
It comes after his Conservatives swept to power with a large majority of 364 seats, while the SNP won 47 out of the total 59 seats in Scotland.
As she confirmed the move, Ms Sturgeon said: "The mandate we have to offer the Scottish people a choice over their future is, by any normal standard of democracy, unarguable.
"We are therefore today calling for the UK Government to negotiate and agree the transfer of power that would put beyond doubt the Scottish Parliament's right to legislate for a referendum on independence."
Powers to hold a referendum are currently reserved to Westminster, therefore a Section 30 order is required if an independence ballot is to be held in Scotland.
If granted, powers are temporarily transferred from Westminster to the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, allowing a referendum to be held.
The order is set out under the Scotland Act 1998, which just over two decades ago allowed for a Scottish government of ministers and a Scottish parliament to first come into force.
In October 2012, a request for a Section 30 order was granted after a deal was reached between then-first minister of Scotland Alex Salmond and then prime minister David Cameron.
That came after the SNP won an unprecedented overall majority in the Scottish parliament in 2011 and it paved the way for the holding of a Scottish independence referendum in 2014.
Months of talks between the Scottish and UK governments resulted in the Edinburgh Agreement - the deal that allowed the historic ballot to take place.
Another Section 30 request was made by Ms Sturgeon in her role as First Minister in 2017 but it was rejected by Theresa May, who said that it was "not the time" for another referendum.
In the run-up to the December general election, Ms Sturgeon made it clear she would request a Section 30 order by the end of 2019, with the First Minister already having outlined plans to hold a second vote on Scottish independence in the latter part of next year.
