STATE-OWNED ferry firm CMAL threatened a consultant with legal action over comments he made to a Holyrood committee, according to letters published on the Scottish Parliament’s website.

Expert Roy Pedersen told MSPs he received a legal letter asking him to apologise and withdraw his remarks or face defamation action.

Scottish Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Mike Rumbles has now called on the SNP Government to condemn the actions of its agency, which he accused of bullying and intimidation.

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CMAL is a Scottish Government-owned firm that procures ferries for use by operator CalMac.

The row emerged following a meeting of Holyrood’s Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee in January.

MSPs are holding an inquiry into how a disastrous contract to build two ferries at Ferguson yard in Port Glasgow went so badly wrong.

Ferguson Marine won a high-profile £97 million contract to build two dual-fuel ferries for Caledonian Asset Management Limited (CMAL) in 2015.

However, disputes and a breakdown in relations eventually culminated in the yard falling into administration, before it was nationalised last year.

At a Holyrood committee meeting in January, Mr Pedersen, who is a member of the Scottish Government’s Ferry Industry Advisory Group, was asked if he had any idea why Ferguson was given the contract, despite it offering the highest specification and highest price.

He said: “I do not know the answer, but three things spring to mind. One is incompetence; another is vested interest; and the final one is corruption. If someone else can think of other answers, they can give them.”

Mr Pedersen said a subsequent legal letter sent on behalf of CMAL claimed this was defamatory.

Statements made during a Holyrood committee are protected from defamation actions.

In a letter to the committee, published on the Scottish Parliament's website, Mr Pedersen said he considered "the threat made to me by CMAL, through their agents, to be both misguided and an attempt to pressurise a witness to amend evidence he gave in an honest endeavour in the public interest to uncover the circumstances behind very serious issues evident regarding the procurement and construction of ferry vessels in Scotland".

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Mr Rumbles said: “In over 21 years since I was first elected to the Scottish Parliament, I have never seen a worse case of intimidation and bullying from a government agency attempting to get a committee witness to change his evidence with the threat of an action against him of defamation.”

A CMAL spokeswoman said: “The specific comments made at the committee were interpreted in several media headlines as reasons leading to the award of the dual fuel ferry contract.

"In addition, the comments informed questions that were repeatedly put by one member of the committee to Scottish Government officials and numerous other witnesses at subsequent hearings of evidence, despite zero factual evidence to back them up.

“As the body responsible for awarding the contract, we took steps to protect the reputation of our organisation and our employees and asked for an explanation stating there was no factual basis for the comments – which Mr Pedersen accepted – to be placed on the record.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Ministers fully support the need for committee witnesses to be free to present any evidence they wish to.

"We do not agree with Mr Pedersen’s evidence, as officials categorically confirmed in subsequent evidence sessions.

“The letters from CMAL are entirely a matter for them.”