A Labour MEP has called on the Scottish Government to release information on the “critical issue” of Scotland’s future in Europe.
Catherine Stihler claims that “transparency in Scotland is a myth” two years after she submitted a freedom of information request to the Scottish Government asking if legal advice on Scotland’s future in the EU had been taken.
She said: “It is overwhelmingly in the public interest to know what advice the Scottish Government holds about the circumstances of their main policy.
“Participants in the referendum must be fully informed of what they are voting for,” said the Labour MEP.
However, a Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “In light of the Edinburgh Agreement, the Government commissioned specific legal advice from law officers on the position of an independent Scotland within the European Union and has now received that advice.
“The content of any legal advice is confidential. By long-standing convention, successive Scottish and UK Governments do not disclose the content of law officers’ advice.
She continued: “An independent Scotland’s continued membership of the EU will be set out in the White Paper which, as the Deputy First Minister made clear in October, will be fully consistent with our legal advice.”