The document gave a favourable projection for the economy of an independent Scotland with a "chronic surplus to a quite embarrassing degree and its currency would become the hardest in Europe".
[1][2] The eighteen-page report focused on the likely effects of North Sea oil revenue on the economic viability of an independent Scotland.
The report stated: The document was completed during the latter part of Edward Heath's Conservative government in 1974, just prior to the February 1974 general election.
[8] In his evidence to the Lords Committee on the Economic Implications of Scottish Independence in 2012, Professor McCrone stated that Scotland's GDP would increase by around 20% if North Sea oil were counted as part of it.
[9] In an interview for Holyrood Magazine on 19 May 2013, ex-Labour chancellor Denis Healey (who served in the Cabinet at the time the McCrone Report was submitted) stated: "I think we did underplay the value of the oil to the country because of the threat of [Scottish] nationalism...