Labour MSPs worried about Fife jobs

Claire Baker and Alex Rowley have asked why no assurances were sought from the developer behind the project during a two year period when the Scottish Government was involved in court battles with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

They also want “full information” on public investment over the past decade in the Methil yard owned by Scottish Enterprise and also the Burntisland yard, part of Forth Ports. The MSPs feel that the project could yield many jobs for the Kingdom if the windfarm machinery was to be built at the yard.

In a statement, the MSPs said: "The more information emerges about this project, the clearer it becomes that the Scottish Government had both the opportunity and the right to demand that there were binding assurances about work coming to BiFab and the wider supply chain.

“Instead, Scotland is yet again scrabbling around looking for a small fraction of the work while the Italian firm Saipem, who are the main contractors, appear set to farm out the great majority of fabrication to Indonesia.

“Offshore wind projects have been in the offing for the past decade and SNP Ministers must explain why so little has been done to prepare for them. We should now have state-of-the-art renewables yards at Methil and Burntisland capable of handling major contracts”.

The statement continued: “There were unique circumstances in the case of Neart na Gaoithe which involved Scottish Ministers supporting the original developers, Mainstream, through the courts for two years. Why was the question of work for BiFab and the supply chain never pinned down during this period?

“We are now desperately hoping that something can be salvaged from this wreckage but the SNP never seem to learn. They talk big about renewables but deliver almost nothing for jobs and industry. Right now Scottish job hopes are blowing in the wind.”