The future of the Dunoon to Gourock ferry service: EIR release

Information requested

There is public interest on whether or not discussions have taken place between Transport Scotland and the commercial ferry operator Western Ferries on the future of the Dunoon Gourock ferry service and the general provision of ferry services across the Firth of Clyde to Cowal.

In the above context under the Freedom of Information Act please provide the following information:

1. Over the last five years on what occasions have Transport Scotland officials attended meetings at which representatives of Western Ferries were present?

2. Please provide details of who was present at the above meetings, their location and purpose along with any Agendas and Minutes produced.

3. Have any discussions taken place between Transport Scotland and Western Ferries regarding the past, present or future provision of ferry services across the Firth of Clyde to Cowal and, if so, when?

4. Have any discussions taken place between Transport Scotland and Western Ferries regarding the provision of Road Equivalent Tariff (RET) on Western's ferry service and, if so, when?

5. Have any discussions taken place between Transport Scotland and Western Ferries regarding the rates that Western Ferries charge commercial vehicles and what impact the rates might have on Commercial Vehicles choosing to go by road instead of ferry and, if so, when?

6. Have any discussions taken place between Transport Scotland and Western Ferries regarding the ability of the Hunter's Quay to McInroy's point service to cater for high traffic volumes at times when for example the Rest-and-be-thankful is closed or there has been widespread traffic disruption due to weather and, if so, when?

Response

As the information you have requested is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of
Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

An email has been sent to you under separate cover due to the size of the document, which contains all Ferry Stakeholder Group meetings for the period requested and is titled Annex B.

Transport Scotland officials were present at meetings with Western Ferries or held calls/teleconference/teams discussions on the following dates;

28 February 2019
14 May 2020
22 June 2020
28 August 2020
7 January 2021
12 April 2021
18 August 2021
15 August 2022
20 October 2022
10 May 2023
4 July 2023
11 October 2023
24 January 2024

For the meetings in 2020 discussions focused on Covid restrictions, services and support.

During the remaining meetings noted, the following items were discussed -

• The performance of the Gourock to Dunoon ferry service,
• The timing and process around the new Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service contract,
• Western Ferries seeking an update on the likely development and publication dates of Transport Scotland’s community needs and market assessment, which was undertaken by Stantec,
• High level discussions on the timing of investment in Islay Class Vessels,
• Reflections from Western Ferries on how they manage to increase frequency during periods of disruption or higher demand.
• General discussion on development of fares policy and Islands Connectivity Plan; and
• Western Ferries seeking an update on the timing and investment plans around the Gourock Dunoon Kilcreggan Infrastructure and Vessels Programme.

With the exception of the 28 February 2019 meeting, Transport Scotland would be represented by the Head of the Ferries Unit and members of the team as required.

An exception under regulation 10(4)(a) of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (the EIRs) applies to some of the information requested. Due to the routine nature of the meetings and the ongoing dialogue that officials have with Western Ferries, the Scottish Government does not hold some of the information requested.

The meetings noted above do not include the meetings of the Rest and Be thankful Task Force, all of which can be found here.

Meetings of the Ferry Industry Advisory Group are detailed below;

minutes-4-april-2019-ferry-industry-advisory-group
agenda-8-august-2019-ferry-industry-advisory-group
ferry-industry-advisory-group-meeting-minutes-17-october-2019

The above meetings were published on the Transport Scotland website with all member information unredacted and as such we are releasing the names of all who attended. For the purpose of the remainder of this response, an exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs has been applied. More information is included below.

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exception is not subject to the 'public interest test', so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception.

An exception under regulation 10(5)(e), confidentiality of commercial or industrial information applies to some of the information requested because it is commercial in nature and the release of this may cause harm to a legitimate economic interest. This exception is subject to the public interest test, and we consider it in the public interests to maintain the exception and not to disclose the information.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

EIR 202400396068 - Information released - Annex A

File type

2 page PDF

File size

108.1 kB