• Murray to push for key figures to attend and Scottish Affairs committee to exert its full powers
• Scottish Government flounders over ferries again
• Parliament backs Scot Lib Dems for more generous community benefit from energy projects

Murray to push for key figures to attend and Scottish Affairs committee to exert its full powers

Following on from yesterday’s announcement that the UK Parliament’s Scottish Affairs Committee will launch inquiries into the dual role of the Lord Advocate, and into the financial regulation of political parties in Scotland, Liberal Democrat Scottish Affairs spokesperson and committee member Susan Murray MP has called for senior SNP and Scottish Government figures to give evidence as part of the inquiry and said that the committee must use its full powers to ensure key figures attend and key documentation is available for members to review.

Ms Murray said:

The Scottish Government has continually refused to display transparency around the Murrell scandal, it is now up to the Scottish Affairs Committee to gather the appropriate evidence to fully scrutinise what happened.

Senior SNP and Scottish Government figures involved must be summoned to give evidence as part of the inquiry in order to fully assess whether our systems of governance are working.

Just to give one example, was it appropriate for the Lord Advocate to tell the First Minister about the charges against his party’s former chief executive weeks before the public knew?

So far the Scottish Government have been as obstructive as can be so I want to see the Scottish Affairs Committee use its full powers to ensure key figures attend and key documentation is available for members to review.

It’s time for a thorough reassessment of the dual role of the Lord Advocate and into the financial regulation of political parties in Scotland. Given how much money was embezzled from under the noses of SNP members, I suspect many of them will quietly accept that this is long overdue.

Scottish Government flounders over ferries again

At First Minister’s Questions, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has today urged John Swinney to finally extend ferries compensation to coastal towns, and challenged him on why Stephen Flynn, as Transport Secretary, didn’t know anything about a significant incident involving a CalMac vessel.

During the exchange, the First Minister did not acknowledge that his own government had this week voted for a Scottish Liberal Democrat amendment calling for the Islands Resilience Fund “to offer more funding, and sooner, to both island businesses and the coastal communities that have been consistently excluded from the scheme.”

Scottish Liberal Democrats have long campaigned for the fund to cover coastal communities like Dunoon, Ardrossan and Mallaig, but the Scottish Government have so far refused to extend it.

Separately, during a meeting of the Transport Committee this week, it became clear that Stephen Flynn was completely unaware of an uncontrolled release of highly flammable methane gas on the Glen Sannox ferry, which occurred in June last year.

Speaking in parliament, Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:

I’ve badgered the First Minister about businesses who have suffered endless ferry disruption.

The SNP Government repeatedly refused to compensate coastal communities.

But this week, Parliament voted for a Scottish Liberal Democrat amendment that would see compensation heading to the very port towns that have suffered the most.

The likes of Ardrossan, Dunoon, Mallaig, Oban and Ullapool.

So, in the spirit of respecting the will of this Parliament, will the First Minister tell businesses in towns like these exactly:

• Which of them will qualify?
• How much they will get?
• And when that money might actually reach them?

He went on to say:

It’s clear this government is simply all at sea when it comes to compensation, and ferries more generally.

Yesterday in parliament, the Transport Minister and his Director of Ferries, were completely oblivious to a major BBC news story. 700kg of highly flammable gas was released into the Glen Sannox with 82 passengers onboard.

A critical safety failure, hidden for a year, only exposed by journalists for all to see.

Presiding Officer, this is the latest in a long line of ferry failures:

The Glen Rosa, now eight years overdue.

£20 million for a shipyard in Turkey, while our own yard in Port Glasgow is shedding a quarter of the workforce.

An election promise for four new vessels, but still no contract.

And now, a Transport Minister, at a Transport committee, clueless about a transport safety failure.

We’ve all heard the rumours that the First Minister gave Mr Flynn this job to set him up to fail. Did he really expect it to happen so soon?

Speaking after the session of FMQs, Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

John Swinney seemed utterly clueless about the scheme he went to the Western Isles to launch.

He also seemed to know nothing about the amendment that his own party voted for this week.

The Scottish Government need to respect the will of parliament and extend this compensation to coastal towns.

Parliament backs Scot Lib Dems for more generous community benefit from energy projects

The Scottish Parliament has today backed an amendment from Scottish Liberal Democrat energy spokesperson Sanne Dijkstra-Downie calling for more local communities to receive more generous benefits from hosting onshore renewable energy developments.

The party has consistently advocated for fair compensation to local communities who bear the burden of hosting renewable projects like wind farms and solar panels, which are transforming the UK’s energy landscape. However, many of these communities, especially in rural areas, see little direct financial benefit, despite enduring the visual and environmental impact of these industrial-scale projects.

The Scottish Government’s community benefit proposals, published on 18 February 2026, recommended £6,000 per MW per year community benefit payment for onshore wind. This is a real terms cut from the £5,000 per MW per year set out in 2014 once inflation has been accounted for.

Sanne Dijkstra-Downie said:

I’m pleased the SNP finally joined Scottish Liberal Democrats in recognising that those communities hosting new onshore renewable developments should see the benefits tangibly in their own communities. I hope they will now set out how they intend to improve on their derisory opening offer.

We are asking them to accommodate large infrastructure developments on their doorsteps. Turbines, pylons, batteries and generators, elements that often fundamentally change the landscape they live in. It is difficult to build support for renewable energy when people see their landscapes changing and their communities facing disruption while the benefits are invisible.

Community benefit should be about more than a cheque. It should also mean local jobs, investment, skills and, where possible, a genuine stake in the infrastructure being developed. Scotland has the

capacity and ability to lead the world in renewable energy but we must make sure that this opportunity touches every community, from Kelso to Thurso.