A GREENS minister has been accused of showing a “lack of integrity” amid claims she misled parliament over “make-believe” figures boasting about Scotland’s renewables potentials.

The Scottish Government has admitted that a figure flouted by SNP ministers as far back as 2010 is not accurate – but has claimed it is “out of date” and needs recalculated.

Ministers have repeatedly claimed that Scotland holds 25 per cent of Europe’s offshore wind potential – a key argument in the case for independence and used to help the justification for accelerating a move away from oil and gas.

On Tuesday, Greens minister Lorna Slater told MSPs that the Scottish Government was first made aware of the wrong figure on November 8, before it was revealed in analysis by pro-Union think tank These Islands.

But emails reveal that civil servants highlighted the figure as having “never…been properly sourced” as far back as October 2020.

Civil servants told the office of former SNP energy minister Paul Wheelhouse and current business minister Ivan McKee that the figure has never been verified two years ago.

A spokesman for the First Minister said “it shouldn’t be assumed” that because a ministerial office had been sent an email, that had been passed on to the ministers.

Asked if Ms Slater misled parliament, he said: “No.”

He said that the parliamentary record could not be updated until the Scottish Government had a recalculated figure to use.

Scottish Conservative energy spokesperson, Liam Kerr, has accused Ms Slater of misleading parliament.

He told MSPs that “the information that Minister Slater provided to parliament two days ago does not, apparently, accord with the facts”.

Mr Kerr added: “Parliament has been misled, again.

“On Tuesday, I also quoted section 1.3.(c) of the ministerial code, which is on how ministers who mislead Parliament should respond. To the best of my knowledge, the only correction to the record has been made by the First Minister, after I called her out on her previous use of misleading energy consumption statistics.

“Apparently, none of those members who misled Parliament on the 25%claim have acted.

“This Government appears to hold the ministerial code and the honour and privilege of office in utter disdain. The implications of ministers consistently and brazenly misleading parliament are huge, as are the implications of ministers not acting in accordance with the ministerial code after having done so.”

Addressing the presiding officer, Mr Kerr said he was “concerned that a perceived lack of integrity by Scottish ministers in not abiding by our processes and codes risks bringing the Parliament into disrepute”.

The presiding officer said the ministerial code “is a matter for the Scottish Government”.

She added that “it is clearly of paramount importance that members, including ministers, give accurate and truthful information to Parliament, correcting any inadvertent error at the earliest opportunity”.

Scottish LibDem leader, Alex Cole-Hamilton, said the error being ignored for two years was “frankly astonishing”.

He said: “How can the Scottish Government confidently say that the figure was correct in 2010 when it was told by civil servants in 2020 that it had not ‘been properly sourced’?

“Quite simply, nobody knows where the figure came from. In truth, the statistic has always been make-believe, but to suggest that it is outdated would sound to any reasonable person as though it had been true at some point.

“I am concerned that, in an attempt to excuse the original falsehoods, the Government is now creating fresh falsehoods to cover its tracks.”