Meeting of the Parliament 19 March 2025
This debate allows the Opposition to attack the Government, but it also provides an opportunity to highlight the significant progress that this Government is making to enhance and improve ferry services in Scotland.
We recognise that there are challenges in the network—those mainly relate to issues emerging from annual overhauls and the delayed return of the MV Caledonian Isles—and I apologise to communities that are impacted by them. All members in the chamber should acknowledge the commendable work of the CalMac crew and port teams in continuing to deliver services. In the previous reporting period for contract year 8, they delivered 95.8 per cent of scheduled services.
We expect MV Caledonian Isles to return to service in April, when she will operate from Ardrossan following requests from the local MSP, Kenneth Gibson, and local communities for that service to continue for as long as possible. A parallel service will run from Troon, with MV Glen Sannox.
The budget that has been agreed for 2025-26 means that we will be investing up to £530 million in the delivery of ferry services and ports works. That is £530 million investment for our island communities that the Labour Party and the Conservative Party refused to support in the budget. The Government provides around two thirds of service running costs, which, remarkably, means that we can keep many fares cheaper now, in 2025, than they were in 2006-07, when Labour was in power.
We have the MV Glen Sannox operating on the Arran route, and we will see delivery of the MV Glen Rosa and the four new vessels that are under construction in Turkey. CMAL continues to work with the yard to ensure that those vessels are delivered as soon as possible. I regularly meet and receive updates from CMAL, and I discussed the matter with the chief operating officer earlier today, stressing the importance of getting those vessels into service. That will enable us to increase capacity and reliability in the fleet as well as splitting the Little Minch routes into a two-vessel service and providing a resilience vessel in the major vessel fleet.
CMAL has, of course, also moved to lead-bidder stage on phase 1 of the small vessel replacement programme, which will bring a further seven new electric ships into operation across the network. That is a live procurement, so I cannot comment on it, but I can say that those seven new vessels will improve connectivity and resilience for island residents, business and communities, and their electric operation will contribute to reduced carbon emissions and make ferry travel more sustainable.
As the Deputy First Minister told the chamber yesterday, Ferguson Marine will understandably be disappointed by the outcome of the current procurement. However, the yard continues to be supported by the Scottish Government in considering future investment and is actively pursuing a number of commercial opportunities, and its business strategy does not rely on solely on one contract.