Transport Scotland - Costs of chartering third party vessels by CalMac: FOI Review

Information requested

Original request 202500488067

Under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, I request the following information concerning chartering of third‑party vessels by Caledonian MacBrayne (CalMac) or organisations acting on its behalf, for support of the ferry network, for the period from financial year 2014/15 to present (or most recent year possible).

1. All charter agreements entered into since 2014/15 for vessels not owned by CalMac or its subsidiaries, but chartered from external companies (private sector or otherwise) to support regular or contingency ferry network services. For each such charter agreement, please provide:

1a. Vessel name and type (e.g. passenger / freight / ro‑ro / catamaran)

1b. Company or entity chartered from (owner / operator)

1c. Date(s) of charter (start & end)

1d. Purpose of charter (e.g. relief, emergency cover, freight capacity, seasonal demand, breakdown cover, etc.)

1e. Total cost to CalMac or to the funding body (including charter fee, associated fuel/crewing / docking / maintenance / any other relevant charges)

1f. Any advance estimated cost and any variation to that cost (if known)

2. From the above, identify the five most expensive charters (by total cost) and provide all details as per 1(a)–(f) for those five.

3. If possible, for each of those five top charters, provide copies of or access to the contract documents / charter agreements which would include duration, cost structure, penalties, obligations etc.

Response

I have now completed my review of our response to your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) for "the following information concerning chartering of third‑party vessels by Caledonian MacBrayne (CalMac) or organisations acting on its behalf, for support of the ferry network, for the period from financial year 2014/15 to present (or most recent year possible).

1. All charter agreements entered into since 2014/15 for vessels not owned by CalMac or its subsidiaries, but chartered from external companies (private sector or otherwise) to support regular or contingency ferry network services. For each such charter agreement, please provide:

1a. Vessel name and type (e.g. passenger / freight / ro‑ro / catamaran)

1b. Company or entity chartered from (owner / operator)

1c. Date(s) of charter (start & end)

1d. Purpose of charter (e.g. relief, emergency cover, freight capacity, seasonal demand, breakdown cover, etc.)

1e. Total cost to CalMac or to the funding body (including charter fee, associated fuel/crewing / docking / maintenance / any other relevant charges)

1f. Any advance estimated cost and any variation to that cost (if known)

2. From the above, identify the five most expensive charters (by total cost) and provide all details as per 1(a)–(f) for those five.

3. If possible, for each of those five top charters, provide copies of or access to the contract documents / charter agreements which would include duration, cost structure, penalties, obligations etc."

Response to your request

I have concluded that the original decision should be confirmed with modifications.

1) I have conducted additional searches in responding to your review request and can confirm that the Scottish Government does not hold copies of any vessel charter agreements. This differs from our original response because these further searches conducted during this review have confirmed that no charter agreements are held. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. The reason why the Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for is because the Scottish Government is not responsible for chartering vessels, this is the responsibility of the Operator, in this case CalMac Ferries.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have this information that you have requested. However, you may wish to contact CalMac Ferries at enquiries@calmac.co.uk who may be able to help you.

Parts 1(a) to 1(f)
parts 1a - 1d have been fully answered in the initial response to your FoI.
Part e) - I have conducted additional searches in responding to your review request and can provide some information regarding "The total cost to CalMac or to the funding body (including charter fee, associated fuel/crewing / docking/ maintenance / any other relevant charges)" from Transport Scotland's records, and these are listed below:

The combined cost of MV Red Princess (date of charter not recorded) and MV Hildasay (2 weeks from 27 October - 9 November 2015) totalled £347,000. This is from CalMac's end of year 2015/16 financial report held by Transport Scotland, and is not broken down further in Transport Scotland's records.
MV Arrow charter costs July-September 2021 totalled £761,000
MV Arrow total costs November 2021 totalled £157,000
MV Arrow total costs January - March 2023 totalled £932,000
MV Gylen Lady costs for the period 1 July - 30 September 2017: charter costs £3734, fuel £5,632, crew £55,922, other operating costs £14,715, initial set up costs [of Kerrera Ferry Service becoming part of the CHFS network] £32,984.

Details of MV Alfred are not included as this information is already available in the public domain. With regard to MV Alfred, under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. This Information is available from the Scottish Government Parliamentary website at the following link: Written question and answer: S6W-40538 | Scottish Parliament Website. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Part f) – The Scottish Government does hold a high level forecast from CalMac of costs for one charter of MV Arrow, shown below, however does not hold this information for other charters.
MV Arrow Costs for Charter (24 October – 21 November 2021) Total Charter Fee - £294,000
Other Costs (including fuel, harbour dues, port staff, national living wage uplift) - £225,000
Total Costs - £519,000
Estimated underspend from previous [MV Arrow] charter - £292,000
Estimated cost for future charter - £227,000

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information that you have requested. However, you may wish to contact CalMac Ferries at enquiries@calmac.co.uk, who may be able to provide assistance with this request.

2) From the above, identify the five most expensive charters (by total cost) and provide all details as per 1(a)–(f) for those five.
Response:
1) MV Arrow January - March 2023 - £932,000
2) MV Arrow July-September 2021- £761,000
3) MV Red Princess (charter dates not held)/MV Hildasay - 27 October - 9 November 2015 - combined total £347,000
4) MV Arrow November 2021 - £157,000
5) MV Gylen Lady - 1 July - 30 September 2017 - charter costs £3734, fuel £5,632, crew £55,922, other operating costs £14,715 = £80,003.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested as per all parts of 1(a) to 1(f). The information that the Scottish Government does have has been provided. You may wish to contact CalMac Ferries at enquiries@calmac.co.uk, who may be able to provide further information.

I apologise that the above information was not identified in responding to your initial request. I have passed on my review findings to the team that handled the initial request.

3) If possible, for each of those five top charters, provide copies of or access to the contract documents / charter agreements which would include duration, cost structure, penalties, obligations etc.

As stated in our response to question 1), the Scottish Government does not hold copies of any vessel charter agreements.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. This is because the Scottish Government is not responsible for chartering vessels; this responsibility lies with the Operator, in this case CalMac Ferries. This differs from our original response as further searches conducted during this review have confirmed that no charter agreements are held. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have this information that you have requested. However, you may wish to contact CalMac Ferries at enquiries@calmac.co.uk, who may be able to assist with this request.

About FOI

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