Campaigners have branded SNP ministers “cowardly and evasive” after they refused to respond to a call for referendums on “independence” for the northern and western isles.
The Referenda on the Islands group, which is lobbying MSPs over the issue, said it was clear the Scottish Government did not have the “courage” to admit it would not back a ballot.
The criticism was meted out after the government sent a letter to Holyrood’s public petitions committee which failed to address the issue being deliberated.
More than 1,000 people signed a petition calling on parliament to urge the government to hold separate referendums in Shetland, Orkney and the Western Isles on September 25, a week after the Scottish independence referendum.
The new votes will ask the people of each island group whether they would prefer to become an independent country or stay in Scotland.
And in the event of a Yes vote in the Scottish referendum on September 18, islanders would also be asked if they wanted to leave Scotland but remain part of the UK.
Campaign group spokeswoman Catriona Murray said: “We expect a government to show leadership.
“But here we get the opposite – evasion, misdirection, and cowardice.
“Alex Salmond’s government states that islanders will remain ‘valued’ after independence.
“It regurgitates some bullet points from last week’s prospectus on empowering islands communities, which went down like a damp squib.
“And it finishes by referring to how long it took to organise the Scottish referendum.
“The implication is that they won’t be able to hold referenda on the islands the week after the Scottish one but they don’t have the courage to say so explicitly.”
Ms Murray challenged ministers to choose a more suitable, alternative date for the islands ballot.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We are clear that Shetland, Orkney and the Western Isles are much valued parts of Scotland and have been so for many centuries, including prior to the Treaty of Union in 1707. That would continue in the event of independence.
“We have been engaging in discussions with the three islands councils of Shetland, Orkney and the Western Isles to consider how, with the powers of independence, the needs of our island communities could be recognised. The government published Empowering Scotland’s Island Communities on June 16.”