THE WHISKY industry will be given £10m Government funding to go green.

Yesterday 17 distilleries received the first phase of funding - 11 in Scotland and six in England.

They got between £44,000 and £75,000 to help boost decarbonisation research and development, with schemes including the use of hydrogen and biofuel boilers and geothermal energy in their production processes.

The funding will help prevent pollution equivalent to taking 200,000 cars off the road.

The industry supports 40,000 jobs across the UK.