Talks between Alex Salmond and Michael Moore bring “modest progress”

The pair held talks over the vote, which the Scottish Government wants to hold in Autumn 2014, in Edinburgh this morning.

But there were still disagreement over certain areas.

The First Minister said there were issues to be resolved over the franchise and and whether there should be a third option on the ballot. Michael Moore said he still wanted the vote to be held “sooner rather than later”.

Afterwards, Mr Salmond said there were still two key issues of disagreement between his SNP administration and Westminster.

These, he said, were whether or not the ballot should also give Scots the option of backing greatly-enhanced powers for Holyrood - dubbed devo-max - and whether 16 and 17-year-olds should be entitled to vote.

Mr Moore also identified the time of the referendum as an issue.

The talks between the two men had been scheduled to last about an hour but ended up going on for approximately 90 minutes.

Mr Salmond will also hold talks with Prime Minister David Cameron on the referendum on Thursday.

The First Minister said those discussions, and the talks with Mr Moore today, were being held “with a view to getting agreement on the manner in which the independence referendum will be held”.

He added: “I think there was some modest progress this morning but I suspect the key points of disagreement have been identified as one or two questions, 16 and 17-year-olds voting.”

The First Minister said he did not anticipate any agreement between Holyrood and Westminster on the issues until after the consultations that both governments are staging.

But he said it was “useful that it was clarified today that the Westminster Government were willing to listen to their consultation on these matters”.

Mr Salmond said the Scottish Government had an “open mind” as to whether there should be a devo-max option on the ballot paper.

He also said they were “favourable to 16 and 17-year-olds getting the vote” before adding: “We will listen to the consultation exercise and I hope that once the consultation is completed and the process is completed then that will enable us to come to agreement, that will shift the ground.”

The First Minister added: “Hopefully the voice of the people will prevail upon the politicians to find common ground on these matters and the objective is to have the referendum in the timescale that we indicated.”

He stated: “You wouldn’t have expected us to come out with complete agreement, it’s modest progress.”