Scottish independence debate to restart

The debate on Scottish independence will restart this week as the findings of the SNP's economic growth commission are revealed.

The First Minister said the publication of the document would offer the opportunity for a debate on Scotland's future based on ''ambition and hope''.

The commission, chaired by former SNP MSP Andrew Wilson, was set up in 2016 to look at economic policy options for an independent Scotland.

It will make recommendations on the monetary policy for an independent Scotland as well as the range of transitional cost and benefits associated with independence.

Reports have suggested the commission will back the creation of a Scottish currency.

Asked about the timing of a second independence referendum Ms Sturgeon told ITV's Peston on Sunday: ''Once we get some clarity, which hopefully we will in the autumn of this year, about the Brexit outcome and the future relationship between the UK and the EU then I will consider again this question of the timing of an independence referendum.

I'm not going to say more about that in advance of that moment arising.

But of course over the next couple of weeks we will, I suppose, restart a debate about why independence for Scotland is an opportunity and what those opportunities are.

As you know we've had a growth commission looking at the economic opportunities of independence.

Its report will be published in the coming days and I think that's quite an important moment, because if you think about the last couple of years in the UK it has been very much a debate about how we cope with the damage of Brexit.

What I think Scotland now has the opportunity to do is look at how we seize the opportunities that lie ahead, so a debate based very much on ambition and hope not a debate that's based on despair, which is how the Brexit debate so often feels.''

Ms Sturgeon repeated her assertion that the SNP would not be a block to a second referendum on the terms of the Brexit deal, and said there was still time for the UK and Scottish Governments to secure an agreement on vital Brexit legislation after the Scottish Parliament voted to withhold consent for the EU Withdrawal Bill.

''We've set out clearly what that would require and if the Westminster government has the will to reach an agreement then certainly it can be done,'' she said.