CMAL row deepens amid “gossip” claims
The Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Fiona Hyslop, has dismissed coverage of why the sole islander on the CMAL board, Murdo Maclennan, was removed as “rumour and gossip”.
Ms Hyslop was speaking at a meeting of a Holyrood committee on Tuesday. In response to questioning she also complained: “Gossip should not end up in reports that I get asked about”. She sought to imply, wrongly, that BBC on-line coverage of the affair was “inaccurate”.
Far from being “rumour and gossip”, the accuracy of the story has been confirmed by multiple sources. Mr Maclennan was not reappointed specifically because he pressed for islanders to perform the launch ceremonies for two CalMac ferries being built in Turkey.
This infuriated the chair of CMAL, Edinburgh lawyer Morag McNeil, who then withdrew her prior recommendation for his reappointment to a second three year term. Her revised recommendation not to reappoint him was approved by Ms Hyslop.
Following Ms Hyslop’s committee appearance, sources have now confirmed the names of the two senior civil servants who had been designated to perform the launch ceremonies prior to Mr Maclennan’s intervention.
Alison Irvine is currently chief executive of Transport Scotland while Frances Pacitti, who is now Director of Business and Better Regulation in the Scottish Government, was previously, from 2018-23, in the Transport Scotland directorate with responsibility for CMAL.
In 2022, Ms Pacitti chaired the appointments panel which made the shock recommendation that Erik Østergaard, previously chair of CMAL, should be appointed as chair of Caledonian MacBrayne – a position he still holds. This cleared the way for his deputy, Mrs McNeil, to be upgraded to the role of CMAL chair.
In a statement to the Gazette this week, Transport Scotland said: “Appointments, reappointments and extensions to the Boards of public bodies in Scotland are carried out in line with the Ethical Standards Commissioner’s Code of Practice.
“The Code is clear that reappointment is not automatic at the end of a member’s initial term. Any recommendation made by the Chair to the Minister for reappointment is for the Chair to determine, based on their assessment and it is not appropriate for Scottish Ministers to seek to influence this”.
In response, the Gazette suggested that this form of words “implies that the decision about whether or not to reappoint rests with the Chair” and asked the Transport Scotland spokeswoman to confirm that “the decision (as opposed to recommendation) rests with the Minister”. At time of going to press, we had received no further response.
While Ms Hyslop and CMAL now say they will replace Mr Maclennan with another islander, there is recent evidence that Mrs McNeil has no enthusiasm for such criteria. As the Gazette reported, she chaired an appointments panel for the last CMAL vacancy for which a distinguished islander was interviewed.
Instead of being asked about islands or ferries, he found himself under a barrage of questioning about his record on diversity. The panel then recommended instead the appointment of a Yorkshire-based railway manager, which was again rubber-stamped by Ms Hyslop.
During her appearance before Holyrood’s Transport Committee on Tuesday, Ms Hyslop declared: “It is really important that we have islanders on the boards of our organisations”. This flies in the face of the fact that throughout the ferries debacle, apart from Mr Maclennan since 2022, there was no islander on the board of either CMAL or CalMac.
The decision to ditch Mr Maclennan is in contrast to the glowing testimony which CMAL itself provides for the first islander to serve on its board. Their Winter Newsletter continues to state: “As a long-term island resident and native Gaelic speaker, Murdo provides a first-hand perspective on the challenges and opportunities facing island communities – an invaluable contribution to Board discussions and decisions.
“Murdo regularly attends local authority transportation group meetings, gathering insight from islanders, interested parties and service providers. These perspectives help shape CMAL’s decision-making, ensuring projects align with the needs of those who rely on them most.”
Ms Hyslop’s endorsement of Mrs McNeil’s revised recommendation to remove him has been described from across the islands as “petty”, “vindictive” and “appalling”. This week, there was political criticism from Donald Mackinnon, prospective Labour candidate in the Western Isles.
He said: “Given everything that has happened, it is incredible that Transport Scotland and CMAL should have pushed for two senior civil servants to perform these ceremonies. If it is the case that Mr Maclennan has been deprived of his seat on the CMAL board for the crime of standing up for islanders that is truly scandalous.”
Mr Mackinnon added: “While we see this at its most blatant in relation to ferries, the same culture runs through the whole quango system. These bodies exert huge power over island life but without any accountability to islanders. This has to end.” He said the “unhealthy quango culture is not good for public services and “not good for islanders”.