SNP Government 'took four months' to give defence firms new munitions policy guidance

John Swinney announced in September that the Scottish Government would reverse its long-standing ban on using public money for munitions manufacturing - but only recently gave firms guidance.

The SNP Government “took four months” to give defence firms guidance over its new munitions policy, according to industry leaders.

First Minister John Swinney announced in September that the Scottish Government would reverse its long-standing ban on using public money for munitions manufacturing - but halted funding for firms which supply Israel.

The move meant that many defence firms were unsure if the ban applied to them.

Warrick Malcolm, director of defence trade body ADS Scotland, told the Scottish Affairs Committee on Wednesday morning that the Scottish Government had only supplied its guidance recently.

He said firms had “spent four months trying to work out how the new defence policy in Scotland will be implemented.”

Mr Malcolm also said that defence companies had not been given any impact assessment by the Scottish Government.

He told the committee: “We have had struggles over things like the munitions policy, which has now changed, as of September.

“But we do have a new policy which was announced on September 3 with immediate effect.

“It’s only now, in the past few weeks, that we’ve finally reached the final implementation guidance.

“So we’ve spent four months trying to work out how the new defence policy in Scotland will be implemented.

“While we’ve been discussing with the Scottish Government, its policy which will restrict defence opportunities, the other parts of the UK have been discussing how to maximise the defence dividend.

“So we are in a difficult position, we are hearing positive noises from the Scottish Government.

“It is for others to determine whether the positive phrases about the defence industry are supported by their actions. I think there’s more to be done on that.”

Andrew Kinniburgh, director-general of fellow trade body Make UK Defense, said: “Suggestions from the SNP that the anti-genocide or counter-genocide policy would potentially remove Scottish Government funding from companies involved in defence and airspace is of concern. We’re worried about that.”

He continued: “Completely get the whole ethical, legal, moral side of the genocide paper that the Scottish Government produced, but we need to be careful not to scare the horses whilst we’re doing that.”

Later on, Mr Malcolm said: “Our position when the policy was announced was to ask the Scottish Government: ‘What do you currently assess to be the intended consequences of this policy? What’s you’re assessment? Have you done an impact assessment? Can you share it with industry so we can check it for accuracy?’

“We have not, as of today, seen that impact assessment. So we have no idea what the Scottish Government’s own assessment of the impact of the policy currently is.”

When asked by SNP MP Dave Doogan what his assessment was, Mr Malcolm replied: “We were unable to do an assessment because there was no implementation guide until a few weeks ago.

“So it’s very difficult to assess the impact when you’ve not been told how the policy will be enacted.

“From the first draft to the final implementation policy, it changed. So any assessment we would have made from the first draft would have been wrong for the final draft.