SNP 'slapped down' over power talks with Norway

Published on Saturday 16 August 2008 19:51

THE Scottish Government has been banned by Westminster from talking to Norwegian officials about radical plans to connect Scotland's electricity grid to the continent.

Scottish ministers were planning to meet their counterparts in Norway this autumn to discuss proposals to build a new electricity connector between Scandinavia and the UK.

The 2bn link would allow electricity to be transmitted to and from Scotland and Norway, whichever country needed most power.

But Scotland on Sunday can reveal that the UK Government has now instructed its embassy in Oslo to make it clear to the Norwegian government that they are not to deal with the Scottish Government.

Labour ministers travelling to Norway next week are expected to ram home the message that all negotiations are to go through them, not Edinburgh.

Their actions led to a furious response from sources close to Alex Salmond last night who said that UK ministers were "undermining" attempts to build the grid and were behaving in a "ridiculous" fashion.

The row centres on a visit to Norway in October by the SNP's Energy Minister Jim Mather when he plans to meet his Norwegian counterpart to discuss the link.

E-mails sent by Whitehall officials and obtained by this newspaper show that a media report about Mather's forthcoming trip triggered an immediate response from the UK Government. One senior official from the UK Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), John Overton, declared: "FCO (the Foreign Office] contacted me about that (Mather's proposed meeting] and I re-supplied the lines about this being a matter for UK ministers."

Overton added: "The article said that Jim Mather would meet Norwegian ministers to discuss in October so I suggested that our post in Norway should make sure that their opposite numbers were clear about UK responsibilities."

A spokeswoman for BERR last night said: "The generation, transmission, distribution and supply of electricity are reserved matters under the Scotland Act 1998, as are international relations. It is for the UK Government to take any decisions and deal with other countries in relation to those matters."

One UK Government source said that BERR's response should be considered as a "slap-down" to the SNP. The source added that the Norwegian government would be urged to ignore all approaches from the Scottish Government. UK officials say they are already examining whether an offshore cable will be required.

However, the Scottish Government last night said they would be pressing ahead with talks in Norway regardless.

A source close to First Minister Alex Salmond said: "BERR is proving to be the single biggest obstacle to Scotland fulfilling our renewable energy potential. Not only have they refused to act to counter unfair connection charges imposed on generators in Scotland over a period of years, now they are actively undermining the building of transmission systems."

The source added: "This memo consolidates BERR's reputation as the worst department in the UK Government – a failure as far as Scotland is concerned. The UK Government rakes in oil billions but gives nothing in return. It is the department that likes to say no to Scotland."