Nicola Sturgeon: Buck stops with me over ferry contract row

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has told MSPs that "the buck stops with me" in the row over the contract for two delayed and over budget ferries.

Audit Scotland said the order was given to the Ferguson shipyard against the advice of a key agency and without the normal financial safeguards in place.

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said the row was "one of the worst public spending disasters since devolution".

Ms Sturgeon said the goal was to save jobs at the yard and deliver the ships.

She also indicated that the decision to go ahead with the contract without the normal financial guarantees was taken by former transport minister Derek Mackay.

The Scottish government later published an email from 2015 in which his permission is sought to go ahead.

The latest estimate is that the ferries will be five years late, and will cost up to £250m - more than two and a half times the original budget of £97m.

The yard was nationalised in 2019, with the government now tied into paying the extra cost of the project.

Ms Sturgeon ceremonially "launched" one of the ferries in November 2017, despite it being unfinished to the extent of having painted boards in the place of windows.

She was also at the Port Glasgow yard in 2015, when it was announced it was the preferred bidder for the ferry contract - which was ultimately awarded to Ferguson in spite of advice from a government agency.

Government-owned harbours and ferries infrastructure group CMAL wanted to start the procurement process over again, after it emerged Ferguson Marine Engineering Ltd (FMEL) was not able give the standard guarantee of a full refund if anything went wrong.

Audit Scotland said it was not clear why this decision was made, saying there was "no documented evidence to confirm why Scottish ministers were willing to accept the risks of awarding the contract to FMEL, despite CMAL's concerns".

Speaking at Holyrood on Thursday, Ms Sturgeon said the criticism in the Audit Scotland report was "entirely fair and justified", and said the government "needs to reflect seriously" on the lack of records around the decision.

However, she insisted that actions were taken to mitigate the risk of the deal, and that it was still the best that could be achieved at the time.

Questions about who was ultimately responsible for the decision were raised at Holyrood, with Ms Sturgeon pointing out that the transport minister at the time was Derek Mackay.

Mr Mackay announced the final award of the contract on stage at the SNP conference in October 2015, and later left government amid a scandal over his social media messages to a teenage boy.

But Ms Sturgeon insisted that the final responsibility lay with her as first minister.

She said: "This is a government that operates by collective responsibility, and I am ultimately responsible for all decisions that the government takes. The buck stops with me and I have never tried to shy away from that on any issue.

"I am not defending the cost overruns or the delay to the construction of these ferries, it is completely unacceptable.

"But at all points the motivation of this government has been to save jobs, save the shipyard and make sure that these ferries - albeit late, and that is a matter or deep regret - can be delivered."

Mr Ross said the award of the contract was "an absolute shocker" and called for a public inquiry to be held.

He said: "This is one of the worst public spending disasters since devolution. It's a reckless waste of Scottish taxpayers' money - but we still don't know exactly who signed off this disastrous contract.

"Audit Scotland can't find a shred of evidence to justify the government's decision to charge ahead without this contract against expert advice.

"In the SNP's secret Scotland, all the evidence about this decision has gone. We're left with Nicola Sturgeon dodging responsibility and desperately trying to throw her disgraced ex-minister Derek Mackay under the bus."

Ms Sturgeon said a "formal review of what went wrong" would be conducted once the vessels were complete in a bid to learn lessons.

Problems have continued to emerge since the yard was nationalised.

MSPs were told on Wednesday that the discovery that many of the cables installed in the Glen Sannox were too short has delayed the delivery of that ship by eight months, and the other ship by six months, and could add £8.7m to the overall bill. A sum of £3.5m has also seen set aside to renew expired warranties on equipment already installed.

Yard bosses have also warned of "the risk of further unknown legacy issues" putting the project back further, saying they would only know if there was damage or deterioration to key systems once the ships are launched and tested.