Ferry compensation and cancellations rise as SNP neglect island communities

Scottish Liberal Democrat economy spokesperson Willie Rennie MSP has today accused the Scottish Government of treating island communities with neglect as he revealed that CalMac compensation payments have almost doubled and more than 17,000 ferry journeys did not arrive as planned last year.

Freedom of information requests submitted by Scottish Liberal Democrats to CalMac reveal:

• That payments made to passengers for meals & accommodation, transport and compensation almost doubled to £454,000 in 2022, taking the total over the last five years to £1.1m.  
• In 2022, 11,301 journeys were cancelled with a further 5,781 arriving late. This is the highest level of cancelled journeys for at least five years and means that the proportion of ferries which did not arrive as planned broke the 10% barrier for the first-time.
• Since 2018, there have been 43,421 cancelled ferries and a further 27,121 which arrived late.

The revelation comes after the Scottish Government confirmed that it would use a rarely used political device to order civil servants to release money for work on Hull 802 under construction by Ferguson Marine to carry on despite official analysis indicating that such a measure did not represent value for money.

The Public Finance and Accountability (Scotland) Act 2000 requires any public expenditure to meet the value for money principles, which means that resources must be used economically, efficiently and effectively. As a result Economy Secretary Neil Gray was forced to issue written instructions that the government break the rules of good finance to get it finished.

Commenting on the latest figures, Mr Rennie said:  

“The SNP have neglected our island communities, as they continue to mismanage Scotland's ferry network.

“These latest figures show that it’s a roll of the dice whether your lifeline service will be late or cancelled.

“This has a real world impact. Businesses can’t get the supplies they need and families are struggling to get to critical medical appointments.  

“Ministers need to explain why years of underinvestment that led us here were ever allowed.  

"We need the Scottish Government to invest in island ferries and put together a long-term plan for replacing boats which have been in use for decades."