Current status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 31 January 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to ensure the reliability of ferry services, in light of reported figures showing that CalMac's annual compensation figures are eight times higher than they were in 2017-18.
To improve Scotland’s ferry, the Scottish Government have committed to investing around £700m in ports and vessels. This includes 6 new major vessels for the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service (CHFS) fleet before the end of this Parliament session.
Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited and CalMac Ferries Ltd continue to seek additional tonnage. The current charter of the MV Alfred is an example of this, as a resilience vessel on the CHFS network.
We continue to provide resilience funding to CalMac Ferries Ltd to enable additional works and upgrades to vessels where required. This is on top of the funding included in the annual subsidy to CalMac Ferries Ltd for vessel maintenance.