Some of Scotland to stay part of England after Separation, MPs told

By our Political correspondent Nat Hunter

dounreayA part of the Highlands may have to remain in the UK if Scotland votes to become independent, it was claimed yesterday.

A committee of MPs heard the Dounreay nuclear facility on the northern coast of Caithness could be turned into a sovereign site belonging to England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

International relations expert William Walker said the future of Dounreay must be considered as part of the debate over what would happen to the Faslane and Coulport nuclear weapons bases on the Clyde if Scotland decides to go it alone in 2014.

The St Andrews University professor was giving evidence to the Scottish affairs committee on Separation for Scotland at Westminster which is chaired by the infamous Ian Davidson MP.

The future of the UK's nuclear weapons is a key issue in the independence debate, with the SNP opposed to them being based in the country.

committeeUK ministers have indicated there may be an option for London to try to lease the Faslane and Coulport sites from an independent Scotland to avoid the massive cost and technical problems linked to relocation. Mr Walker said the arrangement would be unusual in the modern era, although he admitted that it would be "one of the options available."

But he added: "By the way there are three sites, not two. The other site is Dounreay and the Vulcan test reactor, which would have to be brought into this too. There's a question over whether that would have to close or that too would come under some kind of leasing arrangement."

The Ministry of Defence's Vulcan Naval Reactor Test Establishment at Dounreay - which employs 280 people - is used to test the reactors for the nuclear submarines at Faslane.

Estimates for the minimum length of time it would take to move the nuclear deterrent south from Scotland has ranged from two years to more than 20 years.

tridentThe prospect of Trident warheads being based on "foreign soil" for several years has reportedly alarmed UK defence chiefs and led to speculation that London would attempt to strike a deal with Edinburgh to continue using the bases as a sovereign part of the rest of Britain for the short to medium-term.

However, the SNP wants the "speediest safe transition of the nuclear fleet from Faslane", so an agreement may be difficult or require major concessions from the rest of the UK.

Last June, defence expert Prof Malcolm Chalmers, thedirector of research at Royal United Services Institute, told Mr Davidson's committee that a vote for Scottish independence could spark an emergency defence response similar to a terrorist attack on Faslane.

He said that in the absence of formal pre-independence discussions and contingency plans, the MoD could deploy plans which are already in place for "other sorts of emergencies".

"In my experience there are people in the MoD that are thinking about these things and talking about them," he said.

Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont was unavailable for comment.


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