THE SNP last night accused Conservative minister Chris Grayling, above, of “trying to pull a fast one” by failing to produce “independent assessments” he claimed revealed the Scotland Bill will deliver the Smith Commission’s proposals on devolution in full.

Kirsty Blackman MP, a member of the House of Commons Scottish Affairs Committee, said she tried numerous ways of getting hold of the reports, including asking oral and written parliamentary questions to Grayling, the Leader of the House.

He told MPs in July that ministers had “received independent assessments to prove” the UK government was “delivering the Smith report in full” after the SNP and Holyrood’s cross party devolution committee raised concerns it fell short of Smith in a number of areas, including on the transfer of welfare powers.

But after failing to be given the “independent assessments”, Blackman lodged a freedom of information request to the Scotland Office, the government department responsible for the Bill, to see if she could finally obtain the documents.

However, in its response to her FOI the Scotland Office said it did “not hold the information”.

Blackman told The National: “Chris Grayling’s consistent claim that the Scotland Bill fulfils the criteria of the cross-party Smith Commission is simply wrong, and is yet another example of the Tories trying to pull a fast one on the people of Scotland.

“The people of Scotland were promised ‘as close to federalism as possible’ in September last year and voted for more powers by electing 56 SNP representatives in May of this year. It is clear that once again the Tories are denying the overwhelming wishes of the majority of Scots.”

She added: “Pressure on the Tories over the Scotland Bill is continuing to mount with the Scottish Government, the cross-party Scottish Parliament Devolution Committee and briefings from the House of Commons Library all saying the Scotland Bill falls well short of the additional powers proposed by the Smith report.

“Despite the SNP tabling a series of amendments to the Bill which received the support of 58 out of 59 Scottish MPs, the amendments were overruled by the Tory government with only one MP in Scotland.

“The Tories need to stop attempting to pull the wool over the people of Scotland’s eyes and deliver what was promised and what was voted for.”

The existence of “independent assessments” first emerged on July 2 when Grayling was responding to Pete Wishart, the SNP MP, in a parliamentary business questions session.

Wishart had asked Grayling about the business for the forthcoming weeks and pressed him on amendments to the Scotland Bill which had been rejected by ministers, but which the SNP said were necessary to improve the Bill.

He said: “Monday is the last day for debating amendments to the Scotland Bill. Amendments accepted thus far: absolutely nil, zilch, zero – despite the fact that the Scottish Parliament, through its all-party devolution Committee, said the Bill had to be improved and the spirit of the Smith Commission met; that the House of Commons Library has huge reservations; and that 56 out of 59 Scottish MPs were elected to secure and achieve such an outcome. This week, 98 per cent of Scottish MPs voted to improve the Scotland Bill, but those improvements were voted down by English Members of Parliament.”

Grayling replied: “We hear this point time and again from Scottish National Party members.

“They seem to want more and more, but they never actually implement or use the powers that they have. The Government are implementing the recommendations of the Smith commission. We are fulfilling the obligations that we made... SNP members might disagree, but independent assessments say we are implementing the Smith commission report, as we promised.”