THE Scottish Government has plans for a handful of new papers making the case for independence, a minister has confirmed.
Ivan McKee, the business minister, has said there would be “five or six” new papers in the coming months.
Prospectuses are being drawn up by the Government’s constitutional futures division – a team it's understood that consists of 22 civil servants – who have been tasked with outlining the case for Scotland becoming an independent country.
The first two have already been published. One makes the argument that Scotland is being held back by being in the Union, using examples of similarly sized countries around the world that outperform the UK on a variety of measures.
The second, renewing democracy through independence, made the case for exiting the Union on the basis that Westminster “is eroding and constraining Scotland's democracy” and argued that devolution was insufficient to tackle this challenge.
Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday Show, McKee said: “The programme we’re going through is to publish papers on each aspect of policy.
“We’ve already published two, there are more coming down the track, another five or six, including one on energy.”
McKee was pressed on whether the Scottish Government would nationalise energy firms post-independence and said it was something which would be considered.
He added: “Those aspects [nationalisation] absolutely would be considered as part of that.
“We have to be very very clear to make sure that we’re communicating with the people of Scotland exactly what we would do if we were an independent country.”
It would not be possible for the Scottish Government to fund nationalisation currently because it lacks the borrowing powers to finance this, McKee added.
It comes on the same day Nicola Sturgeon urged the UK Government to take urgent action on tackling soaring fuel bills which are set to rise again in October.
The First Minister also would not say whether she backed nationalisation, but said the option “should be on the table”.
The “Building a New Scotland” series is designed to address the opportunities and challenges Scotland would face as an independent country, updating arguments from the 2014 white paper which set out the case for independence ahead of the first referendum.
