THE Scottish Independence Convention (SIC) has today announced a “comprehensive” new report on building a new sovereign nation, The National can reveal.

Titled Transitioning Scotland: Building The Institutions For Our New Country, the work will cover borders, customs, security, taxation and currency and banking and will be published in parts – with the first coming as early as the end of October.

The rest – led by experts including Professor Richard Murphy, Dr Philippa Whitford and Dr Craig Dalzell – will follow over a three-month period culminating ahead of the May 2021 election.

By June, it is hoped that the complete set will be “ready to guide the new parliament”.

Writing in today’s edition of The National, SIC co-convenor Iain Black sets out why he believes the project will be a game-changer, saying: “If you want someone to change their mind, they need to trust you. If you want someone to trust you, you need to be prepared to answer their questions.

“When we are talking about voting for Scotland to become independent, we learned to our cost in 2014 that we need answers that are credible and within our gift to deliver.”

The first instalment, authored by Bill Austin, will examine borders and is based on both “extensive research into best practice” and Austin’s 40 years operational experience in the UK and abroad.

Black wrote: “The discussion papers will offer solutions, providing clarity and detail of the powers being transferred, how this can happen and how this will be managed, including building new or reworking existing institutions.

“These proposed solutions are written with a clear eye on the fine line between setting up the required institutions but remaining policy neutral.

“It is up to the future elected governments of an independent Scotland to enact policy. Between now and then we must ensure the country has the structures it needs to implement them.”