The transport secretary has indicated there does not appear to be any barrier in providing an uncontested award of a lifeline ferry contract to CalMac.

Fiona Hyslop spoke while the Scottish Parliament's transport committee convener Edward Mountain said islanders would not be able to understand  how ministers had not been "negligent" in their duties in delaying a decision over the future of the ferries contract.

It is understood that ministers are examining providing a permanent contract to CalMac giving it the right to run lifeline services in perpetuity as "an arm of government" which has sparked a row amongst user groups.

The direct award without going through a competitive tendering process to state-owned ferry operator CalMac is the preferred option for the next contract over the future of lifeline ferry services.

CalMac's current £975m eight-year Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services contract expires in September 2024. It had previously won the contract for six years in 2007 – after ministers were forced to tender for routes to satisfy European competition rules.

There is concern that the plan to give CalMac the permanent right to run services has not been a feature of the written consultation and some have argued that there must be a separate public discussion over the proposal.

A final decision after a due diligence process – which will establish the feasibility of that approach from a financial, operational and legal perspective – was expected in the summer, with an aim to have the new arrangement in place by October 1 next year.

But Ms Hyslop has said there has been a delay in the due diligence process leading to CalMac getting the current contract extended by a year.

Transport Scotland officials are examining how to continue west coast ferry operations are currently looking at the potential to provide a direct award using what is described as a Teckal procurement exemption to avoid what some would see as unlawful state aid.

The exemption removes the legal obligation on a public authority to tender public contracts when it can be proven that the public authority can provide the services itself, subject to certain ‘control’ and tests.

The Herald: Fiona Hyslop

The exemption was developed through EU case law to allow contracting authorities to award a contract to a supplier without the recourse to a regulated procurement procedure.

Now that the UK is out of the EU, the procurement principles that exist in Scotland are still derived from EU law.

The government had considered two contractual arrangements to ensure continued operation of these services at the end of the current contract.

The Ferries Community Board, formed as part of CalMac's franchise bid for the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service to be the voice of the communities, had previously indicated opposition to the move.

It has said that in response to the ferry service inquiry by the Scottish Parliament's transport committee, communities represented "unanimously" do not support a direct award of the next contract.

Ms Hyslop said she held the community board in "high regard" and added: "The preferred option for a direct toward subject to due diligence is, I would say, progressing well. There doesn't look to be any problems in terms of being able to do that, but we're not at the final decision yet."

The Herald:

On being told of the board's past objection said that she had held various meetings with the them in the wake of the preferred route and that they said their "main focus is to have a resilient and reliable service, and by and large, we do have that".

She added: "But where it isn't resilient and it isn't reliable, we all know that has major impact, and I'm very, very conscious of that.

"They [the ferries community board] are actively involved in identifying their role within the new award. Indeed, just on Friday, there was a working session with the board to help establish what that is.

"I can also reassure that we don't have to wait until the award is given to see the improvements and the interim chief executive of a CalMac is progressing that improvement enhancement plan, regardless of the direct award.

"The issues that the ferries communities board particularly wanted to address was about the culture of a management that wasn't responsive to where they were, and CalMac has been working hard over the last year to make sure that that relationship, that engagement, is not just a one way traffic in terms of communicating what problems are, but also [addresses] how we might resolve and improve them."

Alison Irvine, interim chief executive of Transport Scotland accepted that what was being planned with the new ferry contract was "novel and contentious" and "involves hundreds of millions if not billions of pounds of government money".

She said: "It is really, really important that we get this right."

The Scottish Government has previously said that a direct award should be a "catalyst for change" with a new management culture emerging, "one that is more supportive of the community's customers and passengers served by the network".

One advantage cited for a direct contract is a saving on the tender process. The Scottish Government has estimated that the costs of tendering the 2016 to 2024 contract was £1.1m. But that included a £439,000 bill for consultancy support.

But public spending auditors which were critical of the process said bidders had told them that their costs were increased due to delays during the project.