Nicola Sturgeon has been urged to explain her knowledge of a controversial ferry contract after one of her most senior ministers was linked to signing off the deal.
The construction of two crucial ferries for Scotland’s island routes is five years behind schedule and it is forecast the two vessels could now cost a total of £400 million.
This week Nicola Sturgeon said “the buck stops with me” but moved to pin the blame for the fiasco on a disgraced former minister, Derek Mackay, who was transport secretary at the time of the deal being signed.
But Keith Brown, who is both deputy leader of the SNP and justice secretary in Sturgeon’s cabinet, was asked to approve the deal in August 2015. At that time he was cabinet secretary for infrastructure, investment and cities.
A note sent by an official in the ferries unit of Transport Scotland, the Scottish government agency, said that Brown’s “approval is sought for Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (Cmal) to award shipbuilding contracts of a total cost of £96m for two new major ferries for the [Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service] network to Ferguson Marine Engineering Ltd”.
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It does not say whether approval was given by Brown, who went on to become economy secretary before being sacked from government in 2018, less than three weeks after becoming party deputy leader, to spend three years on the backbenches before his reappointment last year to the cabinet.
A report by Audit Scotland said Ferguson was named as the preferred bidder for the £97 million “fixed price contract” to design and build the two vessels in August 2015.
Warnings ignored in ferry fiasco
The company confirmed the following month that it was unable to provide Cmal, the agency that owns Scotland’s ferries, with a full refund guarantee, which was one of the mandatory requirements of the contract.
In October, ministers signed off the deal despite the warnings. Audit Scotland said there was “insufficient documentary evidence to explain why Scottish ministers accepted the risks and were content to approve the contract award in October 2015”.
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The cost of the ferries, the Glen Sannox and the other vessel, only known as hull 802, has more than doubled to almost £250 million. They were due to be delivered in 2018 but the latest estimate is that they will be completed next year.
Earlier this week at the Scottish parliament, Sturgeon was asked by Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader, who was responsible.
Watchdog blames SNP for Ferguson Marine ferry failures
She said: “I am responsible ultimately for all decisions that the government takes, the buck stops with me. I have never tried to shy away from that on any issue.”
She then told MSPs: “Who was transport minister at the time in question is of course a matter for public record, that was Derek Mackay.”
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Mackay was transport secretary at the time of the deal being signed. In 2020, after being promoted to finance secretary, the Scottish Sun reported he had messaged a 16-year-old boy on social media, describing the youth as “cute” and offering to meet him. He subsequently resigned and later quit the SNP.
The August 2015 note to Brown said he was being asked to sign off the contract “in the absence of the minister for transport and islands on leave”.
Opposition parties yesterday demanded Mackay and Sturgeon appear before a Holyrood committee to answer more questions about their “major mismanagement” of the contract.
Neil Bibby, Labour’s transport spokesman, has written to Richard Leonard, convener of the public audit committee, demanding Sturgeon and Mackay give evidence.
Leonard said the committee would consider the Audit Scotland report on the matter at their meeting on April 21.
