Scots shipyards face “feast or famine” when it comes to securing orders from the Royal Navy, a Labour MSP has warned.
Paul Sweeney said 2024 was an “unprecedented” year for the Senior Service as no new ships were ordered and none were commissioned – while nine were ruled surplus to requirements.
The MSP, convenor of Holyrood’s cross-party group on shipbuilding, said the Navy faced “continuing decline” at a time of rising threats from overseas powers like Russia.
Sweeney said there was a need to speed up the process in which new ships were designed, ordered and commissioned into service.
He told the Record: “The continuing decline of the Navy is deeply concerning as the naval threats we face grow daily. The fleet is now around 70 per cent smaller than at the end of the Cold War in 1991. In 2024 no new ships were ordered, none were commissioned into service, while nine were decommissioned, which is unprecedented.
“The drumbeat of new shipbuilding projects is locked into a vicious cycle of ‘feast and famine’ orders, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and industry take too long to get projects from initial concept design to construction and the construction process itself is taking too long.”
Naval ships are currently built at two yards on the Clyde owned by defence giant BAE Systems, along with the Babcock-owned Rosyth Dockyard.
Construction of a fleet of eight Type 26 frigates is well under way at the Govan and Scotstoun sites, with a £4.2 billion contract between the MOD and BAE supporting 1,700 jobs directly and a further 2,300 in supply chains.
But there remains uncertainty over future orders for Scottish shipyards. The long-planned Type 32 frigate remains at the “concept phase” with no timeline for its design.
Scottish Labour peer George Robertson was last year tasked by Keir Starmer to carry out a root-and-branch review of UK defence policy.
The former NATO chief is expected to publish his findings in the first half of 2025, which will influence future MOD spending.
Sweeney said lessons needed to be learned from the National Shipbuilding Strategy published in 2017 by leading industrialist John Parker.
The MSP said the report identified “incoherent control of the design by MOD and Navy bosses, which causes too much change and delay”.
Annual spending limits imposed by the UK Treasury were also blamed for slowing down progress compared to commercial projects.
Sweeney added: “We still need to see significant progress on multi-year funding for shipbuilding programmes.
“Guaranteeing more orders for British shipyards means we can get sufficient volume to produce ships more efficiently, with better value for money.
“This will require a significant culture change within the Treasury, but it’s one that is essential if we are to grow the size of the navy and develop a more competitive shipbuilding industry.
“That’s why Labour has recently launched a new Defence Industrial Strategy to supercharge this mission in government and I am sure that John Parker’s recommendations will continue to be pursued.”
The Record asked the MOD for comment.
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