Meeting of the Parliament 04 March 2026 [Draft]
Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Let me return to this point: because of persistent pressure from this Parliament’s Public Audit Committee, the Government has been required to bring in the accountants Grant Thornton to conduct a forensic audit to track down exactly where £124 million of public money went when the yard was in private ownership. Yesterday in Parliament, I asked the Deputy First Minister when that forensic audit will be published, but I did not get an answer. So I ask the Government the same question again today: when will this forensic audit be published?
There is another, wider point that I want to make about private ownership, which is this. When I recently sought information on ferry delays and cancellations from the Cabinet Secretary for Transport, I was told in a written answer, which was released just two days ago, that
“Western Ferries and Pentland Ferries… are both privately owned and operated companies”,
so
“The Scottish Government does not hold this information.”—[Written Answers, 2 March 2026; S6W-43859]
I might add that neither Western Ferries nor Pentland Ferries is within the current scope of freedom of information laws, which Katy Clark is giving this Parliament an opportunity to reform. There is a real lack of transparency and accountability over the delivery of public services paid for by public funds.
That leads me to the northern isles ferry routes operated by Serco. Passenger revenue is up over the past decade by 40 per cent, but public subsidy is up by nearly 300 per cent. So what we have is a monopoly, and the question is: do we want it as a private monopoly or a public monopoly?