The Scottish Government working group examining how Scotland could get rid of Trident and cope with the jobs impact of its demise met for the first time yesterday.

With SNP policy backing the removal of Trident from the Clyde, ministers have convened a group of experts covering industrial diversification, the legal and moral position of the nuclear deterrent, and local community views.

This group met for the first time yesterday and will meet again this summer to track how their arguments have progressed. Minister for Parliamentary Business Bruce Crawford, who chaired the meeting, said it was "the action of a responsible government" to plan for the consequences of its policies.

Mr Crawford said: "The Scottish Government is opposed to nuclear weapons and it is the action of a responsible government to plan for a scenario where in the future nuclear weapons are no longer based on the Clyde. The Scottish Parliament has voted against a replacement Trident.

"The working group brings together a broad consensus in Scotland and the world, including civic Scotland and our faith communities, which aspires to our nation becoming free of nuclear weapons."

The group includes long-standing anti-nuclear campaigners from the fields of law, academia, faith groups and trade unions.

Among them is Professor William Walker, head of the school of international relations at St Andrews University, and Dr Rebecca Johnson, a former senior adviser to Dr Hans Blix while he investigated claims of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

A senior government aide said the main hope for development was to demonstrate the case against Trident as a jobs generator.