Swinney refused to admit misleading MSPs over renewables

Yahoo

31-01-2025

John Swinney rejected a call from his civil servants to admit misleading MSPs over the amount of Scotland's electricity that came from renewables, a dossier has disclosed.
The First Minister told the Scottish Parliament in May last year that the proportion of Scotland's electricity consumption that came from green sources of power had risen from 20 per cent to 113 per cent under the SNP.
But the Scottish Tories' Liam Kerr challenged him that the real figure was 64 per cent, with Scotland still relying on nuclear and gas to generate much of the remainder. The SNP opposes the construction of new nuclear power stations.
Documents obtained under Freedom of Information (FOI) by the These Islands think tank disclose that six days after the exchange Mr Swinney was informed that 'officials have come to us as they believe that we need to submit a correction'.
Although the 'equivalent' of 113 per cent of Scotland's energy consumption was generated by renewables, the message to the First Minister noted that it 'goes into the GB-wide grid and gets consumed GB-wide'.
The following day Mr Swinney's principal private secretary replied that he had discussed the matter with the First Minister but 'he does not believe that the record should be corrected'.
Mr Swinney eventually backed down after concerned civil servants wrote to the Scottish Government's chief statistician, who warned him the UK's statistics watchdog would intervene if he did not issue an urgent correction.
But only weeks later, Mr Swinney appeared at a general election rally attacking Rishi Sunak for disregarding Civil Service advice on not misleading the public with statistics.
The First Minister said that if he had been told by the Scottish Government's permanent secretary 'not to use information in a particular way because it created that misleading impression, I would not have used it'.
Earlier this week, the Scottish Government published a video on social media promoting Scotland that claimed it had 'all electricity supplied only from renewable sources'. It was promoted by Angus Robertson, the SNP's external affairs secretary.
Rachael Hamilton, the Scottish Tories' deputy leader, said: 'This is shameful behaviour from John Swinney and reeks of SNP secrecy and cover-up.
'It is no wonder Scots feel so disconnected from Holyrood when they see the First Minister doubling down on false stats and then attempting to try and spin his way out of being straight with them.'
Sam Taylor, who heads These Islands, said: 'You might be tempted to dismiss this as yesterday's news. Corrections, however grudgingly, have been made. Lessons have been learned.
'But that simply isn't the case. Just this week, Angus Robertson was yet again pushing the false statistic on social media.'
The dossier included an email dated June 3 last year in which an unnamed civil servant expressed concern at Mr Swinney's refusal to correct the record.
This was 'particularly concerning' as the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) watchdog had intervened over similar claims previously made by SNP ministers, they said.
They asked whether anything more could be done to 'flag this' to Mr Swinney 'to ensure this is not misrepresented again in future' and warned that they had brought the matter to the attention of Ally McAlpine, the Scottish Government's chief statistician.
Mr McAlpine wrote to the First Minister more than three weeks later stating that Mr Swinney had 'made a statement on the use of renewable energy in Scotland, which needs corrected on the official record'.
He warned Mr Swinney that the matter had been referred back to the UKSA but said the watchdog was 'unlikely to take further action' if he issued a correction as soon as possible.
More than a month after making the statement, on June 26 last year, Mr Swinney finally wrote to Holyrood's presiding officer with a 'clarification'.
He admitted that 64.7 per cent of Scotland's electricity consumption came from renewables and argued that 'the language I originally used meant that I inadvertently described this different statistic'.
Mr Swinney also acknowledged that the 20-day deadline for him to correct Holyrood's written record of its proceedings had passed.
The Scottish Government was approached for comment.