Ferguson Shipyard jobs and costs statistics: FOI release

Information requested

Please provide the following information under FOISA:

a) Number of projected, estimated or actual jobs saved at Ferguson Shipyard, as announced by Scottish Ministers since 2018 (please provide dates if the numbers have fluctuated).

b) Figures/data/calculations, supporting Scottish Ministers' announcements of jobs saved at Ferguson Shipyard.

c) Total costs to date and projected costs of deliverng both vessels (801 and 802) above original contract price.

Response

Response to request (a)
On Monday 2 December 2019 the commercial transaction to bring Ferguson Marine Engineering (Holdings) Limited (FMEL) into public ownership was completed. The table below provides the reported employment numbers since nationalisation. Ministers have, in a range of contexts and on a number of occasions, referenced these figures publicly.

	16 Aug 19	18 Nov 19	13 Nov 20	17 Nov 21	18 Mar 22
Permanent FMPG paid	158	150	323	365	383
Agency	117	172	45	45	73
Interims/fixed term contracts	10	10	56	39	6
Total	285	332	424	449	462

As at the most recent date of reported numbers there were 383 permanent employees, 73 agency workers, and 6 interim staff, as noted above. There are also over 200 contractors currently working at the yard. There have been 42 apprentices in the yard since August 2021 – 5 of them now qualified tradesmen. Fergusons intends to take on a further 15 in August 2022.

The First Minister made reference to these numbers in parliament on 04 May 2022, the report of which can be found here:

Meeting of the Parliament: 04/05/2022 | Scottish Parliament Website

Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) Ltd are responsible for operational matters in relation to the shipyard, including resourcing. You may wish to address further queries on job numbers to Ferguson Marine.

Response to request (b)
The actions of the Scottish Government prevented closure of the Ferguson Marine shipyard and the loss of the associated jobs. The numbers noted in the table above provide the basis to support Ministers’ announcements of jobs saved at the Ferguson shipyard.

Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) Ltd are responsible for operational matters in relation to the shipyard, including resourcing. You may wish to address further queries on job numbers to Ferguson Marine.

Response to request (c)
Since public ownership to 31 May 2022 Scottish Government have spent a total of £89.4m on vessels 801 and 802. Information in relation to costing projections can be found here:

20220323_fergusonmarine_to_con_update.pdf (parliament.scot)

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