Speaking to Holyrood in an exclusive interview, Charles Farr, director-general of the Office for Security and Counter Terrorism said that his office was studying the way in which communities in Scotland operated.

Muslim communities in Scotland have not experienced radicalisation in the same way some in England have, and Scotland has not experienced ‘home grown’ terrorism like the July 7 2005 attacks in London.

Farr said:

“I think the nature of communities in Scotland is discernibly different from the nature of communities south of the border. You have an ability to reach in and develop a strategy of this kind. I don’t want to give you the impression that, in talking to our counterparts in Scotland, we are saying just look at what we are doing here. We are very interested in looking at how you have and are planning to develop your own strategies in the area of community cohesion and counter-radicalisation. The nature of your communities is different - the size, apart from anything else - so you have opportunities that we don’t always have here. The dialogue that we have got with our Scottish counterparts is quite good for that reason.”

Farr also says that an independent Scotland would not necessarily be any more vulnerable to terrorists, nor in any way protected from the threat of attack:

“It is not something that has crossed my mind that there is something inherent about independence that would make Scotland unsafe. I would add that there is nothing inherent about independence that would make Scotland more safe, either. That’s quite an important point.”