The Transport Minister is to probe how taxpayers could be liable for a £1.6m bill for crew costs for two ferries that have yet to set sail.
Scottish Government-owned ferry operator CalMac has run up the costs to March this year while there has been delay after delay in the plans to see the Glen Sannox and the unnamed Hull 802 finally take their first passengers.
Details of the taxpayer cash-supported ferry operator's costs which have been described as "astounding" and "outrageous" come amidst further delays to the delivery of two lifeline ferry vessels Glen Sannox and Hull 802.
They are already over five years late with costs initially set for £97m set to at least quadruple.
But there has been confusion over who foots the bill, with CalMac first indicating crew salaries were funded by the yard. Later it indicated that costs would be recovered by the yard's owners, the Scottish Government.
The Scottish Government's Transport Scotland agency said that the transport minister Kevin Stewart was "committed to looking into this matter further".
It is understood he was expected to talk to CalMac about the staffing costs.
READ MORE: St Mirren embroiled in 'scandal' over 'secret' publicly funded project
But Transport Scotland would not confirm who would be footing the £1.6m bill.
Ferguson Marine, the Scottish Government-owned shipyard firm at the centre of the ferry fiasco insisted that it was not responsible for paying the crew costs, adding there was "no clause" in the contract requiring that.
According to CalMac details of the crew costs up to March, this year, are approximately £1.6m. This figure includes salary, travel and subsistence, pension, and National Insurance contributions, but excludes training.
It has emerged that as of March 17, 14 staff have been recruited to support MV Glen Sannox, including three masters, three chief engineers, three second engineers, and five third engineers.
While the exact start dates of the crew varied, most new crew members have been employed since February 2022.
According to a CalMac document, crew were recruited to support the vessel build activities ongoing at nationalised Ferguson Marine.
The ferry operator said that "crew appointments were all approved by the yard to align with expected vessel delivery date[s]".
It went on: "As such, crew salary is funded via the yard. Once the vessels are delivered and handed over to CalMac, crew costs are attributable to CalMac."
MV Glen Sannox - which is destined for the Arran-Ardrossan route was due to enter service in the summer of 2018.
The second vessel, known as Hull 802, was supposed to be delivered to ferry operator CalMac in the autumn of 2018 for use on the Uig-Lochmaddy-Tarbert triangle, and was due to be delivered in the spring of 2020. In March it emerged that Glen Sannox was scheduled to be ready in autumn 2023 rather than the end of May 2023 previously estimated, with what Mr Swinney described as a "contract backstop" of no later than the end of December 2023.
Hull 802 is now not expected online till the autumn of 2024 having already been delayed to the end of March 2024. The contract backstop was stated as being at the end of December 2024.
These were the latest in a series rescheduled sailings which began when the launch of Glen Sannox was initially put back to the summer of 2019, while Hull 802 was due to be delivered by the spring of 2020.
A revised timetable in 2020 had Glen Sannox complete between April and June 2022 and Hull 802 between December 2022 and February 2023.
By June, 2021, there was a further four months delay.
In February, last year, further delays were revealed after a "blunder" which meant that some of a complex network of 9800 cables were too short to reach necessary equipment.
And the following month, it was stated that a further delay meant that Glen Sannox would not take to the water till spring 2023, while Hull 802 would not enter service till the following winter.
A Transport Scotland spokesman said: "Transport Scotland continue to work closely with CalMac, CMAL, and Fergusons to align recruitment of crew with vessel deployment plans with the aim of maximising the benefits of the new tonnage and additional permanent staff while balancing the risks and costs."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel