Sturgeon’s flagship economic plan facing rewrite over dodgy energy statistic

NICOLA Sturgeon’s flagship economic plan may have to be rewritten after it included a bogus statistic about renewable energy officials knew was unreliable.

The Scottish Government’s 10-year National Strategy for Economic Transformation was published in March with the claim that Scotland was home to “a quarter of Europe’s offshore renewable energy potential”.

However the figure - which was promoted by Alex Salmond when he was First Minister and repeated by Ms Sturgeon and numerous other ministers since - has been comprehensively debunked.

The pro-union group These Islands recently published research showing the figure had never been properly sourced, and suggested the true percentage was closer to 5 per cent of European offshore energy.

Moreover, some Scottish Government officials had stopped using the 25 per cent figure in 2020 because they knew it was suspect, and had been recycled “robotically” without being checked.

Ms Sturgeon’s administration had now confirmed “legacy documents” may need to be revised.

The Daily Record reported that in a series of parliamentary answers to Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-hamilton, ministers also confirmed research was underway to find the true figure.

Energy Secretary Michael Matheson wrote: “The Scottish Government has committed to undertake further work to quantify Scotland’s offshore wind potential.

“We will update Parliament once this work is concluded and at that point also consider which legacy documents, including the National Strategy for Economic Transformation, may need to be updated.”

Mr Cole-hamilton said: “For years the Scottish Government and SNP and Green parliamentarians cooked the books but their falsehoods eventually caught up with them.

“Given that years have passed since civil servants first warned the Government’s figures were dodgy, this research is long overdue.”

Mr Cole-hamilton has also urged ministers to set the parliamentary record straight over the figure.

MSPS are supposed to correct errors made during Holyrood proceedings “as soon as possible”.