Meeting of the Parliament 25 November 2015
I note what the minister says, and I might have some news for him and the Scottish National Party Government in my speech.
Over the summer, I headed to Brussels. I met Commission officials, who advised me that ferry regulations allow the Teckal exemption to be made, should conditions of public ownership be met. I believe that CalMac meets the Teckal criteria. What is more, the updated 2014 EU procurement directives, which the Scottish Government announced that it must bring in by 18 April next year, have relaxed the Teckal exemption conditions further and brought more clarity in light of the increase in case law over the past 10 years.
The Brent London Borough Council and Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council cases of 2011 and 2013 show that the Teckal exemption is applicable in the UK. Furthermore, a key official in the directorate-general for mobility and transport at the European Commission whom I met recently said:
“Regarding the possibility of the direct award of a public service contract”—
that is, without tendering—
“this is, in principle, accepted by the European Court of Justice (Case C-420/04 ... ) in the case of ‘in-house’ service.”
With a great sense of timing, RMT has circulated to all members, including the minister, counsel’s opinion on Teckal. Gordon Nardell QC concluded:
“neither the 1992 Regulation nor the State aid rules oblige the Scottish Ministers to hold a competitive tendering exercise before awarding that company”—
CalMac—
“a public service contract for the Clyde Hebrides services.”
He went on to make the valid point that member states are entitled to perform services themselves and that, once an organisation such as the Scottish Government meets the Teckal exemption control and function criteria, the funding of its operation
“does not constitute state aid”.
Our purpose today is to stop the tender process dead in its tracks and to award the contract to CalMac under the Teckal exemption. There may be a rare brave and enlightened SNP back bencher who, this afternoon, agrees with me—I suspect not. However, a decision in favour of our motion would put the Scottish Parliament, not Brussels, in charge.
Last night I read a speech by the late Donald Dewar, a man whom I greatly respected and who supported me with constant visits to the Highlands and Islands when I was a young candidate in the late 1980s and early 1990s. His speech at the opening of Parliament on 1 July 1999 is a spellbinding classic, in which he said:
“Today we can look forward to the time when this moment will be seen as a turning point—the day when democracy was renewed in Scotland ... This is about more than our politics and our laws. This is about who we are, how we carry ourselves.”
Today could be a turning point when we put aside party interests and think about who we are and how we carry ourselves. I urge members to support the motion at 5 pm and support the workers, services and customers at CalMac. All that is needed now is the will to do and the soul to dare.
I move,
That the Parliament pays tribute to ferry workers at the public sector company, Caledonian MacBrayne (CalMac), and their vital role in maintaining lifeline ferry services to Scotland’s western island communities; notes that the next contract for Clyde and Hebrides ferry services (CHFS) is currently out to tender and may be privatised as Serco is bidding against CalMac to take over these lifeline public services; recalls the argument made to MSPs in a briefing paper from February 2015 from the STUC and the CalMac unions, RMT, TSSA, Nautilus and Unite, that the Scottish Government could have pursued legal arguments with the European Commission to exempt lifeline Scottish ferry services from regulations requiring regular tendering of public sector contracts, a process which is disruptive, expensive and biased toward private sector bidders; believes that the Scottish Government should exercise its power to stop the current CHFS tender process in order to pursue an exemption for Scottish ferry services, and further believes in supporting and promoting publicly owned and operated Scottish ferry services across Scotland.
14:45