Judge Turns Down Shetland Line’s Claim on Ferry Services

UK’s Shetland Line has received a rejection of its BGP 12.7 million claim against the Scottish government related to a ferry services contract for the Northern Isles, BBC informed.

The company issued the claim after the six-year £250m Northern Isles Ferry Services contract, running from 2012 to 2018, was awarded to its compatriot Serco Ltd in May 2012.

Due to its suspicions of “foul play” on the part of the Scottish government, Shetland Line raised a commercial action at the Court of Session in Edinburgh stating that there was a breach of public contract regulations.

“Shetland Line’s case was built around two aspects of alleged breaches of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2006, with the first being Government’s alleged failure to specify with sufficient degree of clarity the services required under the contract (specifically in relation to freight) and additionally the failure to ensure sufficient objectivity in the evaluation of bids, leading to an unrestricted freedom of choice in the selection of tenders, contrary to regulations,” Streamline Shipping Group, the parent company of Shetland Line, said.

A judge of the Supreme Courts of Scotland, Raymond Doherty, was quoted by BBC as saying that “there was no arbitrariness and no lack of transparency in the evaluation process”.

According to Doherty, although Shetland Line was given high scores for services and quality, the contract went to Serco because it scored better on price.

“We now know that our bid outscored that of Serco on almost every aspect of service. The price difference that it came down to in fact turns out to have been very slight – less than 3% of a difference on the full cost, and when the particular method of accounting for fuel is removed then the difference is closer to just 1%,” Managing Director, Gareth Crichton, said.

Streamline Chairman, Stuart Roberts, expressed the company’s disappointment at the outcome of the claim saying that “management and staff at Streamline have put a great deal of time and effort both into the 2012 tender and the pursuit of our case since.”

Crichton said that the consultations on the new Northern Isles Ferry Services tender started on March 14, adding that “with the court case behind us we are looking forward to engaging fully in the process once again.”

World Maritime News Staff