A new strategy for shipbuilding in Scotland should be put in place to ensure Scottish ships are built in Scotland.
MSPs debated the recently announced £10billion contract from the Norwegian navy for BAE yards on the Clyde to build new ships.
Paul Sweeney, Glasgow Labour MSP, called on the Scottish Government to do more to ensure contracts for non-naval ships like ferries are built in yards in Scotland to secure jobs in shipyards doing commercial work.
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Sweeney, a former shipyard employee, said the current policy was handing an “unfair advantage to state-supported overseas competitors”.
He cited yards in Turkey and Poland being given contracts for Calmac ferries rather than Scottish yards like Ferguson Marine in Port Glasgow or Babcock in Rosyth.
The MSP said it appeared the Norwegian government has more confidence in Scottish shipbuilding than the Scottish Government has.
Sweeney said: “We need a specific shipbuilding strategy for Scotland, and at the heart of that strategy must be a change to Scottish public procurement law to include a mandatory social value weighting in tenders for shipbuilding programmes.
“That would ensure that Scottish ships are more likely to be built in Scotland.”
He added two new freight vessels to serve Aberdeen to Orkney and Shetland have been put out to tender with four yards invited, two in China, two in Turkey.
He added: “Why are the Scottish Government-owned Ferguson Marine, Babcock in Rosyth, or Harland & Wolff not in contention for that £200 million contract?
“The irony is that the only work that is keeping the lights on at Ferguson Marine today is the subcontract steel work fabrication from BAE Systems for the type 26 frigates”
The Scottish Government said it was committed to shipbuilding in Scotland and jobs in the yards and in the supply chain.
Richard Lochhead, minister for business and employment, said: “The recent announcement from the Norwegian Government of a £10 billion investment in naval ships to be built on the Clyde has, of course, been welcomed by the First Minister.
“We continue to work with the UK Government to ensure that Scotland benefits from the increased defence spending that is included in the planned defence growth deals.”
He said he had met previously with the then Scottish Secretary, Ian Murray, to discuss the potential for the shipbuilding and marine industry supply chain to benefit from an increase in UK defence spending.
Lochhead said taking Ferguson Marine into public ownership had rescued 300 jobs and saved the last commercial shipyard on the Clyde.
The minister said: “We remain firmly committed to supporting Ferguson Marine to competitively bid for future contracts in order to secure its long-term future.
He added: “With all the support that we can and do provide to our shipbuilding sector in Scotland, we must also be cognisant of the facts that shipbuilding is a competitive global market and that any direct award of a public contract must comply with procurement rules and be capable of withstanding legal challenge.”
He noted that the Norwegian investment in Scottish shipyards, is evidence that shipbuilding is in fact a global, international and competitive industry.
Lochhead stated: “We are on the cusp of an exciting new chapter for shipbuilding in Scotland. "We want to maximise the advantages of that and ensure that we secure as much economic benefit from it as we can, so that we are talking about not just the contracts that we are discussing today but the many more contracts coming to Scottish shipyards in the years ahead.”
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