After several of his Parliamentary Questions on the long delay in the Deputy First Minister’s [DFM] decision on the future of the Gourock-Dunoon passenger ferry, were blandly stalled by the Transport Minister, Highlands and Islands MSP, Jamie McGrigor, wrote directly to Ms Sturgeon on 1st April 2014.
The DFM had committed to announcing her decision by the end of 2013 – and as that date was left progressively behind in the wake of the advance to the Independence Referendum in September, the suspicion arose that the decision itself was moored off pending the result of that vote.
Today, six weeks after his letter to Ms Sturgeon, Jamie McGrigor got his answer – which is no more than a convenient swerve.
The Deputy First Minister claims she has been delayed in coming to her decision because of laggardliness at the European Commission.
Her letter says that her officials had been told that the EC was to announce its revised guidelines on European Maritime Cabotage Regulations ‘before the end of 2013′; but that they have ‘only recently’ been released and that their itnerpretation is necessary to her in the shaping of her decision.
This excuse does not bear scrutiny since the DFM had, in early Autumn 2013, promised to announce her decision on the service by the end of that year.
Since the revised guidelines were themselves not due until the end of that year, Ms Sturgeon could never have fulfilled her promise – IF the updated guidelines were utterly crucial to that decision.
Then in 2014, when the EC’s refreshed guidelines had not appeared and she had not made the decision in question – Jamie McGrigor was repeatedly putting down Parliamentar Questions asking when the DFM was going to announce her decision known.
If the belated EC guidance was the genuine reason for her delay – all she had to do was brief the Transport Minister that she was being held held up for this reason. Instead she sent him out like Geoffrey Howe pictured himself sent out by Margaret Thatcher, with a ‘broken bat’, being seen time after time to dead-bat on the McGrigor questions.
The EC itself says that the main change to the interpretation of the maritime cabotage regulations relates to ‘greater flexibiity’ in the duration of maritime transportation contracts to be offered by member states.
This has been an issue of concern to several EU member states, with longer contracts than have previously been allowed offering bidding operators more opportunity to recoup investment costs on, say, the purchase or commissioning of new boats.
This issue – might – theoretically, have a bearing on the nature of the new tender to be offered in due course on the current ‘town centres’ route between Gourock and Dunoon. It would be germane should any bidder wish to tender to supply an unsubsidised vehicle service on appropriate boats which would also carry passengers whose fares would be subsidised by the Scottish Government.
We decribe that issue of greater length of contract as being no more than ‘theoretically’ germane because no operator has yet chosen to offer to supply such a service; nor is there any indication that any operator exists who sees commercial potential in such a service. This is not surprising, since there is no discoverable business case for an enterprise of this kind.
It has also been known in political circles for some time that the European Commission was minded to relax restrictions on the length of maritime cabotage contracts that a member state could offer – so there has been nothing to prevent the DFM making public her intended direction of travel on the future of the Gourock-Dunoon ferry service.
The EC released the revised guidance on 24th April so Transport Scotland officials have already had three weeks to interpret them.
The EC gives the changes made to the interpretation of the regulations as being:
- the scope of the freedom to provide services in the maritime cabotage sector (who enjoys that freedom and which services the Regulation covers),
- the award procedure for public service contracts and the duration of these contracts,
- the manning rules on vessels providing maritime cabotage,
- transitional arrangements for Croatia,
- the application of Regulation (EC) No 1370/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council on public passenger transport services by rail and by road and repealing Council Regulations (EEC) No. 1191/69 and 1107/703 to maritime cabotage services.
The only two changes that are material to the DFM’s decision on the tendering of a specific ferry service on the Gourock Dunoon route are Numbers 2 and possibly 3 above.
Neither are particularly demanding in terms of interpretation by officials of the nature of the guidance involved.
The DFM’s answer to Jamie McGrigor does nothing to sideline the suspicion that her intervention to assuage noisy local protest was undertaken purely for political reasons which are on a timeline.
We note that her letter to Jamie McGrigor gives no sense whatsoever of the acticipated timescales of what she says now has to be done before she can come to her decision. It is improbable that a Cabinet Secretary at DFM level would have no sense of the timescales involved. Her officials would be required to brief her on this.
The full text of Ms Sturgeon’s letter is here: usersC704288$Smart Touchi1100Output2014-05-20 (4)
