SCOTLAND needs to “get its act together” if it wants to fix the country’s shoddy productivity figures, a leading think tank has claimed.

In a new report, the David Hume Institute warns that unless there is a turnaround, then the health of the Scottish economy “is at risk”.

The report, commissioned and funded by the Scottish Policy Forum, calls on government, businesses, and unions to work together and take lessons from five places which it says have got their act together and increased productivity in recent years: Ireland, Sweden, Australia, Greater Manchester and London.

In each of those places there was, the think tank say, a “concerted effort to deliver, not just for a year or two but over a long period of time”.

Effectively, productivity is a measurement of how efficiently people’s work is turned into good and services.

While Scotland is more productive than almost every other part of the UK, except London and the South East, this is partly because every other part of the UK is not really very productive.

Scotland currently sits in the middle of the 36 OECD countries for productivity. To move into the top quarter of the OECD, then Scotland would need to become as productive as Denmark, yet, as the Hume Institute points out, productivity here was 20% lower than Denmark in 2014.

The researchers say that Scotland is in a good place for increasing productivity as there is low unemployment and workers work a lot of hours and are highly skilled.

But, they add, there are “no quick policy fixes”.

“Productivity is hard to increase; it is a long-term game, and something a whole country creates – government, business, unions and others – by acting together as part of a national endeavour.”

The report calls for more investment by firms and government in what is known as capital force: machinery, equipment and infrastructure.

This is something the Scottish Government say the planned Scottish National Investment Bank will do by investing in businesses that would otherwise struggle to attract finance.

The researchers also worry that recent poor results in the OECD’s PISA which show the achievements of Scottish 15-year-olds falling in reading and science compared to other countries, needs to be turned around.

Jane-Frances Kelly, Director of the David Hume Institute, said: “Productivity in the Scottish economy has all but stalled over the past decade, and if we are to improve people’s living standards and open up new jobs and opportunities, there needs to be a turnaround.

“We are not the first country to face this challenge but – as our research shows – politicians and policymakers need to get their act together and make choices guided by evidence. Failing to do this will put the Scottish economy at risk.”