The head of nationalised Ferguson Marine has said the firm now accepts full responsibility for problems that led to delays in safety clearance for the two vessels at the centre of Scotland's ferry fiasco.
David Tydeman had previously stated that the safety regulator was at least in part to blame for the delays which is estimated to have contributed to new cost rises of £21m.
Official checks on the long-delayed Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), which is responsible for implementing British and international maritime law and safety policy, were rejected on June 1 this year sparking a redesign.
Mr Tydeman previously admitted he knew about the problems within three months of him joining the firm in February, 2022. But the issues did not become public knowledge until September.
READ MORE: Ferguson Marine: Ministers seek to veto ferry fiasco exec bonuses
Among the issues to be resolved surrounded the installation of the evacuation routes on the ferries in order to satisfy the MCA.
The chief executive of the MCA said the safety rules relating to the vessels had been in place since 2009.
Mr Tydeman said that the issues had been the result of the MCA reassessing cargo ship rules.
But the MCA denied that it has changed any rules, saying it had been working with the shipyard since 2015 before it was nationalised, with a working relationship restarted in August 2020.
While being quizzed by MSPs at the Scottish Parliament's transport committee, Mr Tydeman said part of the problem was that local MCA officials in Glasgow had been "overruled" in relation to clearances by the head office in Southampton.
He said the "conversation" with MCA officials locally was that "we're going to get compliance".
The Ferguson Marine chief said that he had been aware within three months of taking on the job at the beleaguered nationalised yard that there were design gaps, one of which was an MCA issue.
But Mr Tydeman said it wasn't until April, 2023, that they realized that the MCA head office had a "more strict approach to application of rules... and we had to do some rethinking between April and June".
He said: "We were perhaps overconfident that we were going to get all these exemptions based on the modelling and the conversations last year. And it was a bit of a surprise that we had to do the design changes that we've done over the last few months."
READ MORE: Ferguson Marine: ScotGov firm admits 'significant doubt' over future
He added: "There was a disconnect with between the local conversations we were having with the MCA here in Glasgow and the final decisions from head office in Southampton."
Not Mr Tydeman has carried out a u-turn on his version of events and indicated the fault did not lie with the MCA.
He told MSPs “In the interests of trying to reach early clarity and to progress the decisions with trials for Glen Sannox and with the build of Glen Rosa, 802, I can confirm that FMPG and the MCA team I met are agreed that the Glen Sannox was designed with the application of ‘cargo rules’ in mind by FMEL for crew spaces and was built by FMEL in 2015-2019 without the relevant plan approval processes being completed.
"I can also confirm that the ‘FMPG over-confidence’ I referred to in committee and in letters to you, should now include FMPG's interpretation of conversations with the Glasgow office. It is now clear to me that the issues lie within the FMPG/FMEL history of events and not between the local office and head office of the MCA as I was previously advised.
"I believe that we do now have a ‘shared understanding of events’ and I trust this will aid the CEO of the MCA in her response to your letter.”
The changes required meant that the two vessels will carry nearly 300 passengers fewer than contracted for to allow for improved passenger seating layouts.
The two lifeline ferries Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa were both due to hold up to 1000 passengers when they eventually come into services.
In a letter to the Holyrood committee, the MCA chief executive, Virginia McVea, said the agency had been “consistent” in its application of safety rules.
She said that so-called “cargo ship” rules referenced by Mr Tydeman had been in place since 2009 and was legally required to be met under 2020 legislation.
CalMac had expected Glen Sannox to be handed over in December 2023, and Glen Rosa in December 2024. They say that once handed over there will be a two month period where they will carry out crew familiarisation and network trials.
But the further work on the vessels from the Scottish Government-owned Ferguson Marine shipyard raised further fears that the Glen Sannox would not be available for the start of the 2024 summer season.
Mr Tydeman had previously stated he was optimistic that Glen Sannox should be available to passengers in spring 2024.
The delayed second vessel, Glen Rosa, which was supposed to be online in the last reschedule in the autumn of 2024 having already been delayed to the end of March 2024, had been pushed back to November, 2024. The contract backstop was stated as being at the end of December 2024.
Both vessels were due online in the first half of 2018, with both now to serve Arran, but are at least five years late, with capital costs expected to be over quadruple the original £97m contract.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel