Meeting of the Parliament 08 June 2023
I will make some progress before I come back to Mr Halcro Johnston.
I will provide more detail on the work at Ferguson’s later in my contribution, but I want to address some of the comments made, both today and previously, by the convener of the Public Audit Committee.
At the recent Conveners Group meeting with the First Minister, the Public Audit Committee convener suggested that we had cherry picked the recommendations that we responded to and used very few words. I do not agree with those comments at all, and I strongly refute that there was any such approach. We carefully reviewed the report and extracted the recommendations that were populated through the chapters. We also presented our detailed evidence and responses to the issues in the report directly to the committee as part of the evidence sessions.
More importantly, we have accepted many of the recommendations that were put forward, to ensure that we continue to strengthen future vessel procurement processes and build on previous work. That includes confirming any use of written authority on the Scottish Government website; welcoming and agreeing to the suggestion of having greater written clarity on shareholder authorisation, and having written authority and looking at how that should be sought for CMAL; reaffirming our commitment to undertake a robust lessons-learned exercise once the construction of the vessels is complete; and emphasising that all parties will engage fully with and support Audit Scotland on any further work to be undertaken.
However, there are areas in the report where no conclusion is reached, leaving statements as observations. We did not respond to those directly where there was no recommendation attached, but those were addressed throughout the evidence sessions. The convener has just said that there were seven oral evidence sessions, including with the former First Minister. Of course, if there are further areas where the committee would welcome feedback, we will seek to provide that.
The Scottish Government is committed to transparency and has proactively published more than 200 documents on its website. We have co-operated at every stage of the PAC inquiry, as well as with those previously undertaken by the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee and Audit Scotland. Throughout its work, the committee had the full participation of a range of senior officials across a number of departments, all of whom had full respect and regard for the parliamentary scrutiny that the committee led, including those from Transport Scotland, who endeavoured to provide all information to the committee in a timely manner. As I have outlined, I understand that the committee also received evidence directly from the former First Minister.
As the matter has been raised by the convener, I can confirm, too, that, through its lawyers, CMAL has commissioned an independent investigation by Barry Smith KC into the allegations that were raised about the procurement of vessels 801 and 802 in the BBC’s “Disclosure” programme last year. Once the investigation is completed, CMAL will carefully consider its findings and what can be shared with Parliament and the committee. Although our view is that there is a need for transparency and openness on that serious matter, I stress that it is for CMAL and the procuring authority to consider next steps as a result of the investigation.
Rhoda Grant (Highlands and Islands) (Lab) rose—