Chamber and committees

I gather, then, that you have not completed any of this research so that people understand that although they might be paying more, they are doing so because it is needed for the future. That work has not been done yet, has it?

Should the Scottish Government be doing more to help to ease the pressure on any increase in water charges?

In relation to the other question that I raised about not meeting targets, will local authorities be set targets as well, or will it simply be an overall target?

What happens if it is not met?

There must be a lot of regulation going on behind the scenes as well. I would imagine that, if you had a heat network, it would be about whether or not you want competition—basically, so that you do not get somebody simply increasing the prices to a huge amount. A huge amount of work must have to go on behind that, in legislation, to make sure that it works for everyone.

Will the member give way?

On the tripartite agreement, clarity is required about whether it could be changed or whether it has to remain, legally. Can the cabinet secretary say whether it can be changed?

I thank the members of and clerks to the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee for what is an excellent report, as has been said, that raises important questions for the Government and the members of the tripartite arrangement.

On reading the report, my first and immediate reaction was that what it says is not rocket science. The report says that ferry services should be efficient, competent, on time and reliable and that they should provide sufficient capacity, charge reasonable fares and be accessible. It says that the administration should be transparent, accountable and competent, provide value for money and be community led. That all seems blatantly obvious to everyone who is on the outside looking in, so why have ferry services been so difficult for the Government to manage? Why have the Parliament, its committees and our island communities had to wait so long for the Government to act? They are still waiting.

Damning evidence was submitted to the committee’s inquiry. The committee heard from communities that businesses are failing, goods are not arriving and urgent health appointments are being missed. The committee heard about constant, never-ending consultation that no action results from. It heard about delays, cancellations and a lack of available tickets. It heard about an ageing fleet that is unreliable and overpriced; about overdue contracts for ferry replacements; and about new solutions such as fixed links, catamaran fleets or more, smaller ferries being discounted for no reason.

I have, but I am sure that, as a Parliament, we all agree that more can still be done.

The lists that I gave include only a small amount of the Government’s failings, and I am sure that my colleagues will pick up more. To be frank, if I were a Government minister, I would be embarrassed to come into the chamber today, but I admire the Minister for Transport for coming forward with some positives. I look forward to cross-party working to try to improve the service for our island communities.

As a Parliament, we should not forget that those island communities have been badly let down by the state of our ferries, and it is those communities that are suffering. On the mainland, we are lucky to have choices. Depending on where someone lives and how rural their area is, they can drive, take a train or use a bus. Islanders do not have such choices. I fear that, without a reliable ferry service, depopulation problems on many of our islands will accelerate. The human cost, which the committee’s convener mentioned, is most important. We need improvements, and we need to send a message to our island communities that change is coming.

A clear message in the report is that the Government should look again at the administrative arrangement of the tripartite structure. I ask the minister to be very clear about how the Government will take that forward and what consideration has been given to the committee’s recommendations on that.

We are clear that the current structure is flawed in many ways. Communities are confused about who is responsible for which bit of the service and who is accountable. Much more transparency is required.

The minister should give us an update on the plans to include local representatives on the boards and management groups of ferry services, to ensure that the voices of local people are heard loud and clear in the day-to-day running of services.

As the convener said, recommendation 28 of the committee report states that contracts should be longer than those that are currently offered and be offered on a 10-year basis. Will the Government give an indication today of whether that will be the case for future contract rounds?

One message that came through clearly in evidence was the need to think a bit more out of the box when it comes to linking up our island communities. The Government needs to give greater consideration to a number of issues: the benefit of smaller vessels running more frequently between islands; more flexible ticketing options for locals making essential journeys; penalties for companies that book space but do not turn up; subsidised travel for those travelling for educational purposes; and fixed links between smaller islands that are close to their neighbours.

The Government promised that the islands connectivity plan would be in place by the end of 2022. It is good to hear that the plan will be released later this year, but why has it taken so long? Is the Government on target to achieve the aim of reducing the average age of ships in the fleet to 15 years by the end of the decade? Perhaps the minister could include that commitment in her closing remarks and give our island communities an assurance that that will be the case.

Let us be clear: an ageing ferry fleet has huge implications for our remote communities. They rely on a service that provides them with goods and services, and with vital education links for our young people. There were 1,678 sailing cancellations in 2021 to 2022, which was up from 1,064 the year before. Every one of those cancellations means that vital goods and services were not available to our island communities. Businesses lost money, children missed education and goods did not arrive. Those are not just numbers; we are talking about people’s lives and livelihoods.

When considering the awarding of contracts for ferry services, I must return to my list of the obvious. I am still flabbergasted that this needs to be said. In 2017, Audit Scotland told the Government that it had to improve its procurement process; to ensure that lessons are learned from previous processes; to build in sufficient time to the process to prepare documentation; to provide bidders with

“clear, good-quality and timely data”;

and to ensure that there is a

“sufficient number of people, with the right expertise, to effectively manage ferry contracts”.

I hope that all that is in place.

In closing, I want to highlight one short but incredibly important paragraph on staffing in the committee report. The report rightly recognises the importance of staff across all aspects of the ferry service from booking officers to on-board crew. In particular, it recognises their work throughout the Covid pandemic to maintain the vital link for goods to the islands. Any threatening behaviour to any member of staff is unacceptable, and I support the ferry operators in dealing quickly with any incident involving staff feeling or being threatened.

One aspect that came out clearly was that in no way were any of the staff responsible for any of the failings in the service that was being provided. The need for investment to train and maintain staffing levels was clear, but the staff themselves are held in high esteem. They are doing the best that they can with the ageing tools that this Government has given them.

I look forward to the minister’s response to the committee’s report, which is one that she helped to shape. It is a damning indictment of a failing service. It has failed our most remote communities with an unreliable, inconsistent and inefficient ferry link, bringing untold economic damage to fragile committees.

The report sets out a series of recommendations that should be obvious to anyone looking in, yet, time and again, this Government has failed to deliver a service that is reliable, efficient and has a capacity to match demand; that is locally based and inspired; and that meets the needs of communities.

In our discussions, the committee heard a lot about consultation fatigue. Our island communities are fed up being asked what they want. It is not rocket science. They want ferries that work, that run on time and that are affordable. It is time for this failing Scottish National Party-Green devolved Government to stop talking and to start acting. The report demonstrates just how much it has failed to do that, and I hope that the minister has come today with some answers, not more platitudes.

To ask the Scottish Government when it will outline details of its £80 million of financial support for the Scottish Cluster carbon capture project, which it announced in January 2022. (S6O-02652)