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9 Dec, 2020

Holyrood committee report published

Financial Report0 Comments

Holyrood’s Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee publishes a report calling for “root and branch” reform of the system for procuring ferries and concluding that the established procedures are “no longer fit for purpose”. Former bosses at Ferguson shipyard, ministers, state-owned CMAL and Transport Scotland are all criticised. Committee convener Edward Mountain:

All parties involved must share in the responsibility for the catastrophic failure to deliver this contract on time or on budget. A lack of due diligence, poor project management and a failure by all parties to take the necessary action to resolve problems as they emerged means that the cost of the contract has increased from £97m to almost £200m while the island communities who are relying on theses ferries to be delivered continue to suffer.

Goverment spokesperson:

We remain fully supportive of the efforts of CalMac, CMAL and Transport Scotland in delivering ferry services on the Clyde and Hebrides Network and to the Northern Isles, but we also recognise the challenges in doing so and the need for continuous improvement to optimise delivery. We have already committed to commission a study of the legal structures and governance arrangements which exist between the “tripartite group” of Transport Scotland, CMAL and CalMac and will publish a ferries stakeholder engagement strategy.

CMAL:

We have a successful track record of delivering ferry projects on time and budget and we are committed to continuous improvement of our processes, so steps are already being taken to further develop the planning process for new ferries.