Minister under investigation over fisheries vessel contract

AN EXECUTIVE minister is being investigated by Scotland’s spending watchdog over a controversial decision on the building of a fisheries protection vessel.

The Auditor General, Robert Black, has launched a preliminary inquiry into the ruling by Ross Finnie, the Environment and Rural Development Minister, that the contract for the ship should not go to an English company, giving a lifeline to the Ferguson’s yard in the West of Scotland area he represents.