Hansard

At the outset, I welcome the Scottish Government’s reference in its amendment to the situation at P&O Ferries. Labour MSPs, whether here in Parliament today or earlier at Cairnryan, stand shoulder to shoulder with the workers and their unions, the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers—the RMT—and Nautilus. P&O executives have behaved utterly disgracefully and should be hunted down to the full extent that the law allows. The situation should never have been allowed to happen and, as Labour’s front bench in the House of Commons has made clear, it would not be happening if there was a Labour Government. P&O executives must be held accountable for their actions.

Speaking of accountability, I welcome this afternoon’s debate, led by Graham Simpson. The ferries fiasco is one of the biggest issues facing Scotland today, and it is one that the Scottish Government has been dodging for too long. The ship has sailed on the SNP’s excuses. Scotland’s ferries fiasco is a national humiliation. A Scottish yard supporting Scottish jobs and owned by the Scottish Government has failed even to make the shortlist to build ferries in Scotland. It is a national humiliation that has serious and profound local consequences.

Reliance on an ageing CalMac fleet means that islanders have to endure the human cost of breakdowns and delays, with young people missing school, sick people missing hospital appointments, families being kept apart and island businesses losing incomes. We have all seen the pictures of island supermarket shelves lying empty. All those things are threats to island life, as Graham Simpson said. The situation undermines efforts to reverse depopulation, and it damages fragile island economies.

Islanders who are waiting on new vessels on the Clyde and Hebrides routes—vessels that are already four years behind schedule and two and a half times over budget—deserve a profound and meaningful apology from the Government for its failures over the past 15 years. I welcome the fact that the Minister for Transport had the grace to apologise for the disruption this winter.

There must be concerted action from the very top in order to put the matter right. There was a time when senior SNP politicians could not get themselves down to Port Glasgow quickly enough to have their photo taken; now, they cannot run away quickly enough from their responsibility for the shambles. Earlier, Willie Rennie and I both asked the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy whether she would stake her position on timely completion of the new vessels. She refused to do so on both occasions. Perhaps the Minister for Transport will take responsibility instead. If not, it is clear that nobody in the Government will take responsibility.

In fact, there has been a ministerial merry-go-round throughout the fiasco. Alex Salmond was down there in 2014. Derek Mackay had his photo taken outside the yard in 2017. Nicola Sturgeon launched a ferry with painted-on windows that was still unfinished. Fiona Hyslop fell out with the union. Michael Matheson, Humza Yousaf and Graeme Dey have all come and gone—unlike the boats—and last week Ivan McKee was answering questions on the issue. Today, Kate Forbes gave the statement and Jenny Gilruth has spoken in this debate. The previous owner is away and the turnaround director is away.

The one constant throughout has been the First Minister, and the First Minister is ultimately accountable for the Scottish Government. That is why Scottish Labour is calling for the First Minister to assume direct ministerial responsibility for the Government’s investment in Ferguson’s: no one else is taking responsibility. Nicola Sturgeon needs to lead from the front, turn Ferguson’s around and bring her Government’s ferries fiasco to an end. That means the Glen Sannox being fully operational with no more delays, followed by vessel 802. The completion of those vessels is essential to rebuilding confidence in Ferguson’s and helping the yard to bid for new work.

On the question of confidence in Ferguson’s, let me say this: today’s Audit Scotland report will make for difficult reading for many people. Ultimate responsibility lies with the Government, but there is plenty of blame to go around.

There is no question, however, about the dedication and professionalism of the Ferguson’s workforce. It got on with the job as best it could in extremely difficult circumstances. It deserves better and needs to know that the Government is committed to completing the vessels. It needs assurances that the new management set-up will make the yard more competitive and bring new opportunities to the lower Clyde.

Our appeal to the Government is that it complete the ferries and ensure that the yard can bid for new work. That must include the opportunity to be part of a much-needed ferry building and replacement programme. We need to build more ferries, but since 2007 this Government has built only six new ferries in 15 years, compared with the 10 new ferries that were built by the previous Labour and Liberal Democrat Administration. We need a programme to rejuvenate our ageing fleet and ensure that new ferries are built in Scotland. I ask the minister and cabinet secretary to consider the case for simpler and smaller models being built on the Clyde in order to help to fill order books.

The test for the future viability of Ferguson’s should not be at the mercy of a vessel that is as complex to build as the Glen Sannox. I encourage the Government to engage with the GMB union on the potential for new roll-on, roll-off ferries to be built on the Clyde and deployed in the CalMac fleet. I say again that if concerns about the workforce had been addressed at an earlier point in this fiasco, perhaps the delays and overspends that have dogged the project could have been avoided. That underlines the need for the workforce and islanders to be adequately represented in the governance of the ferries network. There should be an urgent review into the suitability of the CMAL-CalMac model. It was designed in another time for another time.

I want to acknowledge that although today’s Audit Scotland report usefully sets out the scale and nature of the failings at Ferguson’s, it does not answer all our questions. It does not look into tender documents or in any depth at the reported changes in procurement and design once construction had been approved. It has not been able to interrogate in much greater depth the breakdown in the relationship between CMAL and Ferguson’s. It has not been able to establish whether it was reasonable to pay a turnaround director £2,783 per day, and it could have interrogated what ministers knew and when, and why on earth they did not put in place normal financial safeguards.

There is another way to get those answers and to ensure that lessons are learned from the fiasco—a full public inquiry. There was a public inquiry for the Edinburgh trams because the costs doubled. Costs in this case have more than doubled. There would be no hiding from scrutiny in a full public inquiry. Key witnesses such as Derek Mackay and the First Minister herself did not appear before the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee inquiry, so Scottish Labour supports calls for an inquiry.

Labour supported the decision to save the Ferguson’s yard from closure. We applaud the extraordinary effort that has gone into keeping Ferguson’s open and keeping the workers in jobs, but in failing to oversee the project adequately, the Government is failing those workers. There must be a better future for the workforce at Ferguson’s, for the lower Clyde and for our island communities. To unlock that future, we call on the First Minister to step in and turn the yard around.

I move amendment S6M-03712.1, to insert at end,

“; considers that a Scottish Government apology should be issued to island communities and the Ferguson Marine workforce, who have been affected by failures in the procurement and delivery of vessels 801 and 802; calls on the First Minister to lead government efforts to secure the completion of vessels 801 and 802 by taking ministerial responsibility for government investments in Ferguson Marine; believes that a national ferry building and procurement programme, developed in consultation with trade unions, should create new opportunities for Ferguson Marine to secure ferry contracts, and calls on the Scottish Government to protect jobs and promote sustainable growth and fair work in Scotland’s marine economy.”