Chamber and committees

I welcome Jenny Gilruth, Minister for Transport—thank you for joining us, minister. I also welcome from Transport Scotland Laurence Kenney, head of ferries policy, and Chris Wilcock, head of ferries unit.

Before we begin, I believe that the minister would like to make a brief opening statement.

Thank you, minister. I have a quick question to start us off. The most recent ferries plan is more than 10 years old, and it has taken 10 years to come up with a new plan, which we have not yet had sight of. Are you happy that 10 years is the right period for a plan to exist, or should it have been reviewed earlier? What lessons should we take from the whole process?

Perhaps they could comment on the fact that we heard in evidence last week from one of our Norwegian witnesses that the ferry fleet that we have in Scotland would not be in a position to tender for routes in Norway.

Okay. Perfect. We will definitely come back to you.

This is your last question, Monica. You have pushed the envelope with your questioning, and I have to bring in other committee members.

Perfect. Thank you. As there are no more questions, I move to the next item on the agenda, which is formal consideration of motion S6M-07689. I invite the minister to move the motion.

Motion moved,

That the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee recommends that the National Bus Travel Concession Schemes (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Order 2023 [draft] be approved.—[Jenny Gilruth]

Motion agreed to.

Thank you, cabinet secretary. I have a quick question before I open up to questions from members. You said that the need for the amendment has come about because of suppliers defaulting. Could you explain how that happens and what sort of level it is at?

To build on that question, we have heard from some islanders that they believe that the contracts are fairly strait-laced and cannot be changed and that, if there was evidence of the ability to change them, we would have seen that in lots of letters that suggest changes and changes to the contracts that have been approved. On that basis, we asked CalMac last week whether there was lots of evidence of contract changes, and it said that there were none that it had requested. I am now confused. You are saying that it is fleet of foot and that there is the ability to change, but CalMac says that it is not.

Having heard from islanders that there were not changes, it would be helpful to the committee to be able to say that we have seen evidence of changes.

Just before the meeting last week, we got some information from CalMac. It gave reasons for cancelled sailings by cause. I did not understand what force majeure within its own control meant; such a definition is completely beyond me. CalMac says that the Scottish Government approved the cancellation of 1,551 sailings last year but could not give a reason for that. Do you want to give a reason for that? If you are cancelling that amount of sailings, islanders may be a little concerned.

I would not want to set a precedent.

We move on now to item 3, which is formal consideration of the motion.

Motion moved,

That the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee recommends that the Renewables Obligation (Scotland) Amendment Order 2023 [draft] be approved.—[Michael Matheson]

Motion agreed to.