Chamber and committees

I did not quite hear what you said about the duration of the tender—I apologise; I probably ought to get the hearing aid that my wife tells me that I need. Once you have awarded the contract, with people having two to three years to build into it, how long does the tender last? Obviously, if you have to gear up with ferries, a fairly long-term investment will be needed.

Do you have any further questions, Mark Ruskell?

Okay; perfect. Yes, I had noted that.

Liam Kerr has some questions.

If I set up a ferry company with 25 or 30-year-old vessels—he says with a wry smile—and came to you and suggested that I was going to tender for a job, would you consider me or would I be outside the scope of consideration?

On the emissions, do you also think there is a problem with reliability when a ferry gets to that age?

Thank you very much. That has been an extraordinarily helpful session for us as part of our inquiry. Thank you very much for giving your time generously to us this morning to help widen our knowledge about ferries and how other countries are dealing with the issues that we are facing in Scotland.

I will suspend the meeting briefly and we will reconvene at 11 o’clock.

Thank you. We are now going to hear from our second panel as part of our inquiry into a modern and sustainable ferry service for Scotland. Joining us to offer their views on the future of ferry provision in Scotland and to discuss their current activities we have ferry operators who provide Government-subsidised services: CalMac Ferries and NorthLink Ferries.

I am delighted to welcome Robbie Drummond, chief executive of CalMac; Stuart Garrett, the managing director of NorthLink Ferries; Kris Bevan, the freight manager of NorthLink Ferries; and Jim Dow, the commercial director of NorthLink Ferries. Thank you all for accepting our invitation and for sending us some useful information in advance. Some of it arrived in response to a letter that was sent just last week, so I am especially grateful to Robbie Drummond for turning that around so quickly. It is helpful to the committee.

The deputy convener, Fiona Hyslop, will lead off.

We have just heard about the Norwegian experience, where it is up to the companies to design the ferries that need to fulfil their contract. Is that not the right way to do it?

Robbie, you mentioned the figures that you provided to us on cancellations of sailings. I have just had a quick look at them and I am a bit confused. What does “force majeure” mean? The document says that it is within your control.

Agenda item 2 is consideration of a draft statutory instrument: the draft Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016 (Register of Persons Holding a Controlled Interest in Land) Amendment Regulations 2023.

I welcome the Minister for Environment and Land Reform, Màiri McAllan. Thank you for joining us today. I also welcome from the Scottish Government Rebecca Parry, who is a lawyer; Paul Richardson, who is senior policy adviser for land reform; and Fiona Taylor, who is head of the land use and land reform unit.

The instrument has been laid under the affirmative procedure, which means that Parliament must approve it ?before ?it ?comes ?into force. Following the evidence session, the committee will be invited, under the next agenda item, to consider a motion to approve the instrument. I remind everyone that the officials can speak under agenda item 2 but not in the following debate.

I invite the minister to make a short opening statement.