As part of The Ferret’s
Who Runs Scotland investigation we looked at 70 firms operating in Scotland’s defence industry and examined data about them obtained by the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT).
The special access at Westminster given to BAE Systems, Leonardo, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Thales, amounted to 2217 meetings with the UK Government including 40 when representatives from the Prime Minister’s office were present, lasting a collective 58 hours.
In 2018 alone the five companies collectively had contracts with the Ministry of Defence worth £2.42bn. We also found that 87 people who worked for one of these five firms had also worked for the UK Government, making them so-called ‘revolving door’ employees.
Nearly a third of Scotland’s biggest wind farms have owners with links to offshore tax havens in the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, Guernsey and Jersey.
An investigation by The Ferret has also revealed that 39 of the largest 50 wind farms are ultimately owned outwith Scotland in England, Spain, France, Germany, Norway, China and elsewhere.
Campaigners allege that the wind industry’s tax havens have deprived public services of “many millions” of pounds, while boosting private profits. Scotland’s renewable energy wealth is being “looted” by international tax avoiders, and profits “siphoned overseas”, they say.
According to experts, wind farm ownership is “opaque” and “secretive”. The “bright green image” promoted by the renewable energy industry is “more a murky shade of grey”, says one.