Committee member slams Scottish Government over ferry fiasco.

The committee inquiry revealed the Scottish Government chose the most expensive of six shipyards tendering for the contract to build two new ferries in 2015 and paid well over its initial valuations when selecting Ferguson Marine as the successful company. The ferries have so far cost more than £250m.

The Scottish Government's response fails to address the millions of pounds of losses faced by the taxpayer and indicates that the government remains ‘fully supportive of our transport agency Transport Scotland, CMAL, and CalMac’ despite the report heavily criticising all three bodies.

Mr Rumbles said: "This is an appalling government response. The inability to accept that there was a catastrophic failure in the procurement process suggests ministers have their hands over their eyes and their fingers in their ears.

"Meanwhile the government's response criticising the report for not blaming the contractor enough, suggests that complacency is well entrenched in the government, with a lack of understanding of the their mistakes from the start.

"The Scottish government does not even mention the millions of pounds lost to the taxpayer. This is the worst government response to a report I have ever seen. The minister must appear before the committee to answer for this dereliction of duty."