THE Scottish Government has so far failed to contact the Treasury to discuss details of its plan for a currency union in the event of independence, it has emerged.
Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said the UK Government had received "no correspondence" from the Scottish Government on how an agreement to share the pound might be policed.
He also said the Scottish Government had not asked whether it might be represented on the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, the key body which sets interests rates.
SNP ministers have previously claimed an independent Scottish Government would have a seat on the committee.
Mr Alexander, the MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, was replying to a parliamentary question from Labour MP Willie Bain.
The news emerged as First Minister Alex Salmond met outgoing Bank of England Governor Sir Mervyn King to discuss the SNP's plan for a sterling zone with the UK, if Scots vote Yes next year.
Scottish Labour's Finance spokesman, Ken Macintosh, said: "Salmond was keen to meet with the outgoing Bank of England [Governor], when he no longer has a role in being able to help shape's Scotland's financial future.
"But the SNP have not even bothered to write to the Treasury to outline any of their plans for Scotland's currency or monetary arrangement in the events of independence. They cannot claim the UK Government are not willing to negotiate if they have not bothered to contact them."
Earlier this year Chancellor George Osborne said the UK was "unlikely" to agree to a currency union. Mr Salmond has been criticised for refusing to reveal a "plan B" option if a deal proved impossible.
A Scottish Government source said: "The Westminster Government has made clear it will refuse to have discussions with the Scottish Government ahead of the referendum. That is despite being encouraged to do so by the independent Electoral Commission."
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