Ferguson Marine to build tugboats amid row over new orders 'con'
No submission made to competition authorities six months after ministers announced plans to hand shipyard orders
Ministers have been accused of “gross incompetence or a con” after admitting their beleaguered shipyard has yet to be given new contracts and it will build tugboats to sell in the meantime.
Economy and Transport Secretary Stephen Flynn said the Scottish Government had still to seek advice over whether it could hand orders to Ferguson Marine for two CalMac ferries and two other ships - six months after it announced the plan.
Meantime, the Port Glasgow yard’s only work - to complete the hugely delayed large CalMac ferry Glen Rosa - is due to end in three months time and 70 jobs are to be cut.
Mid-Scotland and Fife Scottish Conservatives MSP Stephen Kerr told Mr Flynn on Thursday: “This is either gross ministerial incompetence or a con by the SNP spin machine because we knew all of this six months ago.
“Just before the election, it was made to sound as if the orders were in the bag, the yard’s future was secure, it was a watershed moment.
“Not one contract has been awarded, as many of us said would be the case.
“No submission to the CMA [Competitions and Markets Authority], no work for the yard in 2027 and now redundancies have been announced.
“What exactly has the SNP government been doing for the last six months apart from conning the good people of Inverclyde?”
Mr Flynn said he expected a “principles assessment to be submitted [to the CMA] for formal pre-referral assessment in the coming weeks with a final submission following thereafter.”
This is for two small CalMac electric ferries for the Sounds of Barra and Harris and a Scottish government marine protection vessel and marine research vessel.
In the meantime, Mr Flynn said he had agreed to the yard’s proposal to speculatively build an unspecified “small number of tugboats for subsequent sale into commercial markets”.
He has approved an unspecified amount of “working capital” for the work, which he said “represents a sensible commercial approach.
Mr Flynn said: “It has the potential to retain critical shipbuilding capability and workforce skills. We want to offer certainty to the yard to ensure it has a pipeline of work into next year.”
Mr Flynn said since March, vessel designs had been developed while the viability of plans to modernise yard with promised £14.2 million of Scottish government funding had been assessed.
He said the principles assessment had to show “the policy rationale, economic case and commercial justification align with subsidy control requirements”.
Mr Flynn said none of the redundancies would be compulsory.
But Scottish Liberal Democrat transport spokesperson Willie Rennie said: “It’s now clear the government failed to carry out appropriate legal checks before it told Parliament earlier this year that it would make a direct award of a ferry contract to the Ferguson yard.
“The consequences are being felt by the third of the workforce who have lost their jobs as a result of the government’s negligence.
West Scotland Labour MSP Neil Bibby said: “Months have passed since the SNP government promised to deliver contracts for the yard, but there are still waiting.
“Stephen Flynn must accept the urgency of the situation for islanders and workers and give a cast-iron commitment that he will deliver the promised contracts to the yard.”
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