Hansard

I begin by reminding members of my entry in the register of members’ interests, and by thanking the clerks and staff for their tireless work on the production of the report.

Today, we debate the findings, recommendations and conclusions of the Public Audit Committee’s report, “New vessels for the Clyde and Hebrides: Arrangements to deliver vessels 801 and 802”. It is a report grounded in the extensive evidence that we gathered over seven oral evidence sessions and from a wide range of written submissions.

It is a matter of record that some of the evidence that the committee took is the subject of dispute between the various parties who spoke to us, but what is not in dispute is that the people of Scotland, and our island communities in particular, have been badly let down, and that there has been a widespread failure of decision making and leadership across Government and its agencies, and by those who were previously running the yard, which goes back almost a decade.

Let me tell you who else have been badly let down: those workers in that yard at Port Glasgow. They have witnessed highly paid managers, turnaround directors and countless, countless external consultants and advisers all come and all go, when, all the time, if only the workers had been listened to, it is my sincerely held belief that these vessels would not have ended up being five years late and three and a half times over budget.

Since the committee published its report at the end of March, there have been a few developments. We have had two transport ministers—and we are now looking for a third—a new cabinet secretary, a new Deputy First Minister and a new First Minister.

In “Equality, opportunity, community: New leadership - A fresh start”, the First Minister told us:

“it is imperative that transparency underpins our approach to delivery. My government will ensure the people of Scotland have the information they need to hold us to account.”

However, Governments are judged by what they do, not by what they say they do, so I am duty bound to report to Parliament that, time after time, in the course of our investigations, we found poor record keeping of key decisions within the Government. We heard of ministers—up to and including the former First Minister—holding meetings with a private contractor behind closed doors, with no permanent civil servant present, and for which no minutes exist. A senior member of the Cabinet refused to answer the committee’s questions until requested to do so for a third time. That should not just trouble the five members of the Public Audit Committee; it should trouble every single member of this Parliament.

Delays occurred in securing the attendance of some senior civil servants, and delays occurred in receiving evidence from Transport Scotland, with little or no explanation provided for late or incomplete information.

Correspondence that could not be found for the committee later turned up in response to a freedom of information review. So, let me be as clear as I can be: if a committee of this Parliament seeks evidence from the Government, it should be provided in full. It should not be dependent on a member of the public or the press posing the same question.

Taken together, those actions show a serious disregard for openness and transparency. They also demonstrate an unhealthy disrespect for the work of this Parliament, which makes it all the more disappointing that the Scottish Government’s written response to the report that we are debating this afternoon was late, lacks any real substance or detail, and simply fails to address at all half of the conclusions and recommendations. There was no response on the role of Transport Scotland, no response on the procurement process and no response on ministerial conduct—no response! It was issued in the former transport secretary’s name, but in fairness to Kevin Stewart, he was acting on behalf of the whole Government. So, there is a collective responsibility here, which I hope not only the cabinet secretary but the First Minister will accept.

The committee, in our report, also stressed the importance of full transparency around written ministerial authority. We therefore welcome the cabinet secretary’s recent action. While we recognise that the value for money assessment by external advisors Teneo may contain commercially confidential information, it is in the public interest and it is in keeping with, to use the First Minister’s own phrase, the “imperative” of transparency, that as much of the assessment as possible is published in the coming days.

Our report also recognises the very serious allegations made in the BBC’s “Disclosure” investigation: claims that Ferguson Marine Engineering Ltd was allowed to progress beyond the pre-qualification stage of the procurement process despite being unable to meet requirements that were mandatory, and claims that FMEL also had preferential access to restricted technical information to help inform its tender bid.

Of course, it is right and proper that those most serious allegations are thoroughly investigated—that there is a due process—but Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd is wholly owned by Government ministers, which is why we call once again this afternoon for a commitment from the Government to share the findings of the King’s counsel-led inquiry with the Public Audit Committee and with this Parliament.

We also call in the report for the Auditor General for Scotland to

“undertake a comprehensive audit of the entire procurement”

process; to

“audit the full cost of this project from start to finish once the vessels have been completed”;

and to have a laser-like focus on the £128 million of public money that was paid out to FMEL by undertaking a forensic audit of all financial records to establish exactly where the money went.

Before I finish, let me turn to the role of Transport Scotland. As we conclude in the report,

“the Programme Steering Group which it led, was weak and toothless”.

Despite having

“a critical role in communicating important information”

to Scottish Government ministers on CMAL’s behalf, Transport Scotland appears to have repeatedly failed to do so. We were even told at one point that Transport Scotland had

“no role in the contract”,

when it clearly had a central role in the contract. That is why we have fundamental, deep-rooted concerns about Transport Scotland’s position, which the new transport minister must address.

Finally, we were able to reach a significant degree of consensus in the report. The one area where there was some division is over the involvement of Scottish ministers. The majority of the committee concluded that it was “wholly inappropriate” for a Scottish minister, in the middle of a live tendering exercise, which he was overseeing, to reply to a constituency MSP that alternatives to a full builders refund guarantee had previously been acceptable, because in so doing, he compromised the integrity of the procurement process.

Similarly, the former First Minister’s decision to publicly announce the preferred bidder for the contract, even when, in the words of her own media briefing, “significant negotiations” were still “to be concluded”, most certainly weakened CMAL’s negotiating position with FMEL, not least over the builders refund guarantee.

As a committee, we are clear that record keeping and note keeping fell well short of what we would expect, so there is a failure of ministers but a failure of the civil service, too. So, it is of course encouraging that the permanent secretary has issued new guidance on the recording of decisions, but as I said to the First Minister two weeks ago, he and the permanent secretary must now mount a wider review of Government accountability and transparency to Parliament, because this report is not a report simply about value for money; it is also about trust and confidence. It is about whether the machinery of democracy itself is working in the way that it should. It is about the principles of democracy. It is about the standards of good government, of open government, of transparency and, yes, of honest government.

In the end, this is also about respect and regard for public accountability and for parliamentary scrutiny. It is about whether we treat democracy as a right and not a privilege—not just for members of this Parliament, but for the people we and the Government derive our power from. That is my deepest conviction. That is what is at stake—democracy and the trust of the people.

On behalf of the Public Audit Committee, I move,

That the Parliament notes the conclusions and recommendations contained in the Public Audit Committee's 1st Report, 2023 (Session 6), New Vessels for the Clyde and Hebrides: Arrangements to deliver vessels 801 and 802 (SP Paper 344).