THERE were the makings of a constitutional crisis between London and Edinburgh last night as a Holyrood minister's pledge to strip the Ministry of Defence of Crown immunity was rubbished as "not mature government."
THERE were the makings of a constitutional crisis between London and Edinburgh last night as a Holyrood minister's pledge to strip the Ministry of Defence of Crown immunity was rubbished as "not mature government."
In a statement to MSPs about the recent Dounreay incident and the reporting failures of the MoD, Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead told MSPs that he was prepared to legislate to remove Crown immunity from the Ministry of Defence over environmental issues.
The MoD bit back, with a source insisting: "The ability to handle sensitive information responsibly is a defining characteristic of a mature government. It is clear Alex Salmond is incapable of doing that."
A Scottish Government spokesman responded: "This is exactly the kind of high-handed attitude from the Ministry of Defence which proves the need for decisions to be taken in Scotland."
The row has erupted after the MoD detected low levels of radioactivity emanating from a breach in a reactor at the Vulcan nuclear submarine test-bed at Dounreay, Caithness, in January 2012.
That breach was contained but there was a subsequent discharge of gases, although still at a level well below permitted levels.
The reactor was deactivated for 10 months but the Scottish Government, and the local community, was only informed as a statement was made to Westminster.
Philip Hammond's department informed the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) later in 2012.
The agency said it was told on a confidential basis and as there was no safety risk decided not to share details with the Scottish government
Mr Lochhead told Holyrood: "We see evidence of the MoD's culture of secrecy and cover-ups when what we need is openness and transparency.
"Sepa's role under the Radioactive Substances Act 1993 is to regulate the keeping and use of radioactive material and the accumulation and disposal of radioactive waste.
"For sites with a nuclear licence, the Office for Nuclear Regulation regulates most activities on site, with Sepa regulating emissions to the environment and waste.
"But Sepa's role on military sites such as Vulcan is different.
"The Act does not apply to premises used for defence purposes, so Sepa has no power to regulate. The MoD has a Crown exemption from the legislation that applies to everyone else.
"This Parliament has recently passed the Regulatory Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, which allows us to introduce a new consistent, and transparent environmental regulation regime for Scotland.
"We want to get rid of anomalies like Crown exemption and treat all those subject to regulation even-handedly."
The MoD source said: "This is yet more political posturing.
"Ministers know full well that there was no safety issue at Dounreay and that discharge levels were significantly below safe limits allowed, but they just can't resist playing political games.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article