CalMac £2.3m fine is deemed ‘immoral’

Lochboisdale, where urgent repairs had to be carried out to the linkspan, is the latest community to suffer from a disruption to ferry services.

The figures, secured by Conservative MSP Donald Cameron under Freedom of Information legislation, show that the fines imposed by Scottish Government ministers during these period represent a quarter of all such penalties since 2007.

They were described this week as “deeply immoral” and “eye-watering” with no benefit coming back to the communities which have been hardest hit by the CalMac service failings.

The “performance deductions” inflicted on CalMac have risen directly in line with the ageing of the fleet due to the failure to provide new vessels – a matter that is not the responsibility of CalMac but of the Scottish Government and its procurement quango, CMAL.

In 2007-08 the penalties – imposed under the contract agreed with Transport Scotland – amounted to just £35,000. They did not pass the £1 million mark until 2016-17 as the failure to provide new vessels began to bite and the fleet continued to age.

By 2020-21, they had passed the £2 million mark and for the period from October 2021 to June of this year they hit £2,345,940. This was a period of great disruption to services due largely to break-downs of ageing vessels such as the ‘Lord of the Isles’ and the ‘Clansman’.

The system of penalties built into the contract with Transport Scotland means that the sums involved are deducted from the subsidy paid to CalMac.

Performance deductions are applied when the published timetable is not adhered to though cancellations due to weather conditions are not included.

Mr Cameron said: “The scale of the penalties is eye-watering, but it’s the increasing nature of them too which appears to mirror the rise in anger at the state of the ferry service within island communities.

“Over a decade ago, CalMac told the SNP they would need to build a ferry every year simply to stand still. That hasn’t happened, and instead we have an ageing fleet that is breaking down more and more often.

“Of course, the people and businesses who depend on these lifeline services don’t benefit in the slightest from these enormous fines – the SNP government may as well be fining itself. It should at least serve as a stern reminder of just how dire things have become”.

Highlands and Islands Labour MSP, Rhoda Grant, said it was “deeply immoral to punish CalMac and the communities which depend on it for failings that are outside their control”

Ms Grant said: “I don’t think many people in the islands believe that CalMac are primarily responsible for a situation that can only be resolved through the introduction of additional capacity which is not with CalMac’s power to deliver.

“There is an overwhelming case for this money to be returned to the communities and businesses which continue to suffer hardship due to exactly the failings that CalMac are being punished for but are not of their own making.”

The idea of the CalMac penalties being used to compensate businesses was supported last month by the Western Isles MSP Alasdair Allan, who said he had “asked the Scottish Government to implement a compensation scheme which would utilise the financial penalties it receives for service loss, due to technical failures, redeployment or other avoidable cancellation, across the CalMac network”.

While the Transport Minister, Jenny Gilruth, made sympathetic noises at that time.

A spokesman for the Scottish Government told the Gazette this week: “Regarding business compensation, there’s nothing further to update on at this point”.

As we went to press on Wednesday, services for Uist and Harris continued to be affected by urgent “essential” linkspan repairs being carried out at Lochboisdale with the MV Hebrides redeployed to operate services to and from Lochmaddy while MV Lord of the Isles is operating an amended timetable between Tarbert and Uig.

All passengers and vehicle drivers are strongly advised to check the revised timetables before making any journey.

In response to Gazette enquiries yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon, a spokesperson for Jenny Gilruth, Transport Minister, said: “It is somewhat dispiriting that Donald Cameron does not appear to have listened to the Transport Minister’s update to Parliament on the future of ferry services on 8th September. Had he done so, he would have recognised that there is an acceptance from Ministers and from Transport Scotland of the need to reform and improve services - and the need to do so urgently.”

“This is not just for Government, however. It requires grown up politics from all parties, to help improve ferry services in the West of Scotland. To that end the Minister very much hopes that Mr Cameron and his colleagues will engage in a collegiate manner on the right way forward. This is bigger than any one political party”.