Question to the Scotland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, if he will make an assessment of the (a) strategic and (b) economic contribution made by Scotland to the UK.

My assessment, along with that of the majority of people in Scotland, is that Scotland’s strategic and economic future is best served as part of the UK.

Scotland is a key part of the Union and both contributes to and benefits from being part of the UK - including through higher spending per head, record funding via the Barnett formula, and through the pooling and sharing of risks.

Strategically, military bases and armed forces personnel based in Scotland play a crucial role in defending the whole of the UK and contribute to NATO; Scottish renewable electricity generation is a critical part of the UK’s plan for achieving net zero; and Scotland’s internationally recognised brand is important for delivering the UK’s ambitious global export strategy.

On economic contribution, the rest of the UK remains Scotland’s biggest trading partner with over 60 percent of all sales going to the rest of the UK and more than £70 billion of goods and services sold to Scotland from other parts of the UK.