Northern Isles route vessels: FOI Release

Information requested

In line with Freedom of Information Legislation, I would be grateful if you could comply with the following request. Over the past 5 years (broken down by year) how many used commercial vessels has Transport Scotland investigated as a possible purchase or contracted additional vessel on the Northern Isles route (Aberdeen to Lerwick) whether freight or passenger or a mix of both. Please send me this data for each of the past five years (calendar or financial).

Response

The information in the table below is what Transport Scotland hold. It should be noted, CMAL continually source the market for additional second hand tonnage that could be added to both the Northern Isles and Clyde and Hebrides fleets to improve services and bring additional resilience. CMAL consider between 50 and 100 vessels on an annual basis (via its shipbrokers). It is important to note, opportunities for suitable second-hand vessel purchases to serve our lifeline networks are rare given the standards required from a regulatory perspective and the comparatively small vessels that can operate, to the ports and due to route constraints.

An initial gateway review is performed for each vessel received where the vessel’s main particulars, powering, capacities, and route requirements are all assessed. Should the vessel meet the criteria, it is further evaluated at Gateway stage 2 which will involve port interface drawings, ship visits with the operator (Calmac/Northlink) and analysis of any deficiencies in the requirements. The majority of available vessels regrettably do not meet the requirements to go to Gateway 2. Any vessels which meet the criteria to proceed to Gateway 3 are typically viewed as suitable candidates and negotiations begin, pending detailed stability analysis and discussions with Class and UK Flag authorities.

The figures in the first line of the table below relate to vessels taken forward to potential purchase stage after being identified and brought to Transport Scotland as suitable and a business case was made to support the purchase of the vessel. Unfortunately, it was not possible to conclude the sale with the vessel’s owners in those instances. The second line in the table relates to separate vessel charters of the MV Arrow.
Please see information requested below.

	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024 to date	Total
Number of vessels investigated	0	0	1	2	0	3
Number of vessels chartered	1*	0	1*	0	0	2

*1 Vessel chartered on two separate occasions in 2020 & 2022

The chartering of vessels on a temporary basis is led by Northlink as the operator and again they may hold detailed information on other potential vessels offered for charter. As such we would suggest you contact NorthLink direct for all information they hold under your request regarding chartered vessels.

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.