Chamber and committees

Do you mean in the current year’s budget?

That will be dependent on the advice that I receive from officials.

I expect to get it imminently. That is what I said to Parliament when I was asked questions on the issue previously by two of the local members, including the constituency MSP for the area, Pauline Stafford.

Our commitment to deliver the station is cast iron. It is in the manifesto, and we will seek to do it. As soon as I have the ability to update members on the next steps, I will.

I have had communication from some MSPs about their ideas for the city and region that you are talking about. There are technical challenges in relation to those ideas, and there are cost challenges, too. However, if there are specific proposals that you or other members have a particular interest in and would like to bring forward, I give you a commitment that we will take those proposals away and look at them in a bit more detail.

One of the early conversations that I had was in Westminster with Lord Hendy, who is taking the Railways Bill through the House of Lords for the UK Government. I was incredibly heartened by the positive language that he used in respect to Scotland’s rail network, which is a testament to the work that officials have done over many years to improve standards. There is always work to do on punctuality and reliability, but that was a nice thing to hear.

However, I have some concerns about the MOU and what the partnership will look like going forward. We have not yet been able to make a decision because we do not know what the corporate structure of GBR will be, and it would be remiss of us to move into that space without knowing that.

What has become apparent during the parliamentary process in Westminster is that, until such point as you are regarded as being part of GBR passenger services, there is not necessarily a guarantee that you will be able to access the benefits of that. That becomes an issue if you go into a partnership, because you would want that to be on an equal basis—you would want it to be 50:50—but it looks as though the legislation, as drafted, would prevent us from having the benefits unless we accepted a proposal whereby we do not have majority ownership and there is a 51:49 scenario.

I am reluctant to say that that is my preferred outcome at the moment. It is important that the United Kingdom Government responds to the concerns that I have expressed to it in writing, and I have no doubt that it will. When it does so, the UK Government must be cognisant of the fact that the Prime Minister himself has been very clear with the public about pushing power out of Westminster.

I would like to see Scotland’s rail entirely in Scotland’s hands. That would be the starting point for the conversation that I want to have, but if the UK Government is not willing to do that at this juncture, it needs to be willing to accept a 50:50 partnership for the reasons that I have outlined.

I do not seek to criticise—you would not expect me to, and I do not feel the need to.

This has been a bit of an education for me over the past few months—you will forgive me in that regard. I have been wonderfully supported by Alison Irvine, who unfortunately cannot be here today, and by people such as Mary Docherty, who has done an absolutely phenomenal job. We were able to work with bus operators to get the £2 fare cap over the line within the 100-days commitment. I feel as though I spoke to Chris Wilcock on an almost daily basis about the situation in the Cemre shipyard a few weeks ago, and Fiona Brown is never too far away.

The team has been wonderful in supporting me over the past months, and I am incredibly proud of the work they have done. That is not to say that we should not seek, as part of the wider public sector reform work, to ensure that there is direct accountability with ministers, which bringing TS back in-house does. I think that all parties would welcome that.

Mr Simpson, you are drawing a conclusion that might not reflect the reality of the situation. I apologise for not watching the news this morning—that is very much on me—but I will make sure that you get the full details.

Yes. I have read the same news story that you have.

It would be hard to argue that we are in a situation that meets the needs of the folk on the islands, which is why I am keen to engage with everyone around the table. Pretty extensive amounts of public money are flowing into Loganair and, I believe, Air Charter Scotland to support the Wick flights to Aberdeen and Glasgow. If those were able to run on a commercial basis without us, I would welcome that, but that does not appear to be the case.

On the issue that I think that you are talking about, I would go a bit further than saying that there are a couple of technical issues. There are very significant legal matters involved that relate to the UK Government’s subsidy control regime and the Competition and Markets Authority, and the importance of those matters should not be diminished. The announcement of the direct award to Ferguson’s of the two small vessels and the two research vessels—the marine vessel and the research vessel—was made prior to my coming into post by my predecessors, Kate Forbes and Fiona Hyslop.

As, I am sure, you will appreciate, we are working at significant pace to get to the point at which we will be able to fulfil the commitment that has been made, not just to the Parliament but to the workforce at Ferguson’s. It is incredibly important to me and the Government that we do that. When we stepped in to save Ferguson’s many years ago, we did so to ensure that it would have a sustainable and viable commercial future, and it is in our shared interest to see that realised.

As soon as I am able to announce progress, I will do so. Next week, I will give an update in the chamber on the two Ferguson awards, in response to the justified concerns of parliamentarians over the summer about the announcement that was made at the yard, which was deeply regrettable but essential to ensuring the yard’s future. I will ensure that the committee is appropriately apprised of developments as they take shape.