Fresh call for Brexit paper publication
- Published
Scotland's Brexit secretary has renewed his call for the UK government to publish its Brexit analysis in full.
An edited version of documents looking at 58 sectors of the economy was given to the Scottish government on Monday.
But it has only been shared on the basis that the information will not be released to the public.
Brexit Secretary Michael Russell has written to his UK counterpart to protest, arguing that people must "know the consequences" of Brexit.
The 850 pages of documents - which MPs demanded be published in a vote earlier this month - have also been handed to the Commons and Lords Brexit committees, whose members will begin to study them in private later.
'Negotiating hand'
Labour has claimed that MPs were being "treated with contempt" over the partial release of the documents.
UK government ministers say they are being as "open as possible", but some sensitive details which risk "undermining the UK's negotiating hand" with the EU will be kept private.
In his letter to Mr Davis, Mr Russell raised "concerns about both the manner in which these reports have come to us, and their content".
He said: "It is essential that people across the UK fully understand the consequences of decisions being taken about their future.
"It is disappointing that the UK government has persisted in keeping this information from being publicly available and have shared with us only on the basis that we do not release it into the public domain.
"I urge you to reconsider this approach, be up front with people and publish these reports immediately."
Michael Russell criticised the secrecy over the papers, which he said did not contain any actual impact analysis
Mr Russell also said it was "clear is that these reports do not contain any actual impact analysis" but were instead a "collation of sectoral information".
He added: "As useful as that is, it fails to address the key need; to understand what assessment the UK government has made of the likely impact of its approach of leaving the Single Market and Customs Union and what mitigating measures if any are being put in place to manage negative impacts."
Earlier this month, Scottish Secretary David Mundell said that none of the 58 reports that had been compiled by the UK government were specifically about Scotland.
But he said some of the sectors were "very prominent in Scotland".
What is in the documents?
MPs on the House of Commons Brexit committee will be allowed to read redacted versions of the papers later
Until now only senior ministers and civil servants knew what was in the papers, which were kept in a safe overnight in several lever arch folders.
The Commons and Lords Brexit committee will starting reading them in private later, while they have also been shared with the Scottish and Welsh governments and Northern Irish officials.
But there are bits which they won't be able to see because they have either been handed over with sections blacked out, or not been handed over by ministers.
The BBC's economics editor Kamal Ahmed says he has been told that the reports are not - as has been claimed by some - in-depth "impact assessments".
He says they will not put a figure on the costs to different industries if there is no comprehensive free trade agreement between the UK and EU after the UK leaves in March 2019.
The government says the reports will show the size of each of the sectors, their worth to the UK economy and how they are regulated at the moment within the EU single market and customs union.
In a letter to the Commons committee, UK Brexit Secretary David Davis said certain details were being kept private because there was no guarantee all of the 21 MPs on the committee would keep them secret.