Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service 3

We will continue to deliver a lifeline ferry service to connect island and remote communities off the west coast of Scotland with the mainland when the current Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service (CHFS) contract (CHFS2) expires on 30 September 2024.

In a statement to Parliament on 16 November 2023, the former Minister for Transport set out Scottish Ministers’ preferred procurement route for the next CHFS contract (CHFS3), which is to explore a direct award (an award in reliance on the exemption in Regulation 13 (1) of the Public Contract (Scotland) Regulations 2015).

A due diligence process is underway to establish the feasibility of direct award from a financial, operational, and legal perspective.

While good progress has been made on the due diligence work, there are a number of complex issues still being worked through, including subsidy control, individual entity status and associated accounting impact.

Now that there is greater clarity on the remaining issues and processes, it is clear that these cannot be concluded by 30 September 2024, which is the expiry date of the current contract. We have therefore decided to implement an extension of the current contract up to 12 months to enable this work, and associated assurance processes, to be concluded prior to the final decision being made.

Subject to a satisfactory outcome of the due diligence exercise, the Scottish Government will commence the necessary steps to facilitate a direct award with a final decision on this route in the coming months. Should the due diligence exercise result in a decision not to proceed with direct award, then the procurement route would revert to a competitive tendering process.

The current policy position regarding unbundling of the CHFS network has been clearly expressed and there are no plans to split up the network.

In relation to ferry priorities and governance structures under consideration through Project Neptune, the Cabinet Secretary of Transport has been clear that no immediate decision will be taken on the merger of bodies or governance arrangements.

We will continue to work with key stakeholders, including communities and trade unions, to inform the development of these key services. Details of further engagement sessions will be published on this page in the coming weeks.

The new contract will take into account the wider ferries policy work being developed under the Islands Connectivity Plan.

The Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services play a crucial role in our transport system, providing vital links for residents, businesses, and tourists across the west coast of Scotland.

We are committed to ensuring that the views and perspectives of communities and key stakeholders are considered, reflected upon and help shape the detail within the next CHFS contract.

A public consultation was launched on 15 December 2023 and ran for 12 weeks and closed on 8 March 2024.

All public consultation responses have now been analysed and the executive summary and full analysis report are available to view.

The recorded responses have been published and are available to view on Citizen Space.

If you still wish to provide feedback on the new contract, please contact us at chfs3@transport.gov.scot.

We are currently developing the new contract specification and have been welcoming the views of communities and service users on their expectations for the service.

Officials carried out a series of CHFS3 'drop-in' public engagement events on Arran, Mull, Islay, Skye, Lewis, Bute, Cumbrae, North Uist, South Uist, Tiree and Colonsay from November 2023 to February 2024.

The feedback gathered at these meetings will provide valuable insights that will guide the future development of our services. These were also incorporated within the public consultation analysis report which was published on 25 July 2024 (see tab 2).

We appreciate the active participation of all attendees and their contribution to this important process. A webinar is currently being designed to provide an update on the overall project, further information on this will follow in due course.

• View the storyboard presentation provided to communities at these previous events

Transport Scotland officials carried out a series of CHFS3 community 'drop-in' events on Arran, Mull, Islay, Skye, Lewis, Bute, Cumbrae, North Uist, South Uist, Tiree and Colonsay from November 2023 to February 2024.

At these events, communities had the opportunity to provide and discuss their views for the next Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services contract. A small selection of the emerging findings derived from our public engagement sessions are detailed below.

Community feedback will be instrumental in shaping the new contract and a final report summarising the key findings will be available in the coming weeks.

Examples of possible measures for CHFS3 (focusing on the eight key themes)

Resilience and reliability

• Dedicated relief vessel(s) once new vessels are introduced to the fleet.
• Explore opportunities to improve interoperability between routes and increase standardisation of vessels.

Capacity and demand

• Spaces available for last minute bookings for islanders and key workers.
• Operator required to make best use of available deck space.

Community voice, transparency and accountability

• Communications on service disruption could be regionalised, instead of being managed by HQ.
• On site communication for passengers when travelling – when boarding commencing, estimated departure and sailing times.

Carbon reduction and environmental impact

• Explore where public transport connections could be improved to make alternative travel modes more feasible.
• Environmental impact of ferry services to be reported e.g. Climate Impact report.
• Report on recycling of soft plastics; single use takeaway cups, takeaway food containers etc.

Onward and connecting Travel

• Explore improved connectivity to ensure that ferry services align with bus and rail links, even during disruption.
• Development of SMART ticketing to streamline booking processes.

Accessibility

• Regular accessibility audits to take place with accessibility groups such as Mobility Access Committee Scotland (MACS), with the aim of improving accessibility at ports and onboard vessels.

Freight services

• Freight to be encouraged to travel via non-peak or dedicated freight services where practicable.

Monitoring and review

• Suite of Performance metrics to cover all aspects of the ferry experience including customer satisfaction, service performance and sustainability.
• Real time accurate performance reporting to reflect the true passenger experience.

Following the outputs of our extensive stakeholder engagement exercise and public consultation, we have worked collaboratively with CalMac to develop an Enhancement and Change Plan.

The Enhancement and Change Plan will bring in a number of changes ahead of the contract extension starting on 1 October 2024 to areas such as community engagement, local decision making and performance reporting; areas that the consultation evidenced would benefit from enhancement.

CalMac have already started the process of recruiting additional area operations managers to enhance local decision making and communication with communities.

This work will be the start of how the new contract can act as a catalyst for change.