Sweeney urges ministers to rethink Damen workboat deal

Scottish Labour MSP Paul Sweeney has called for ministers to intervene in the award of 24 naval workboats to Dutch firm Damen, telling the UK Defence Journal that the decision undermines the National Shipbuilding Strategy and risks accelerating a looming work gap at Ferguson Marine.

We have been reporting since November on how Serco’s Defence Maritime Services Next Generation contract embedded shipbuilding inside a wider services package, meaning UK yards were not invited to tender. The subcontract to Damen, worth around £200 million, represents roughly 22 percent of the overall In Port Services deal and will see tugs and pilot boats for Clyde, Devonport and Portsmouth built abroad.

Sweeney said he was taken aback by the award, telling me “When Dutch firm Damen was directly awarded this contract for the 24 workboats by Serco back in September I was astonished, as it runs completely contrary to the National Shipbuilding Strategy core objective to promote greater UK supply chain content and also comes at a crunch point when British shipbuilders like Ferguson Marine desperately need this kind of work on smaller vessels to keep their workforce gainfully employed. I raised my concerns with the GMB trade union and UK Ministers at the time, and it came as a surprise to them, too.”

He argued that ministers should not treat the process as fait accompli. “I would like Defence Ministers to intervene to review this contract, especially in light of the ongoing prosecution of Damen directors for alleged breaches of Russian sanctions, which may not have been originally foreseen when the Ministry of Defence renewed its 28-year outsourcing deal with Serco last May. A design licence and subcontract should now be negotiated for the production of these naval dockyard support vessels to take place at Ferguson Marine, which is in critical need of new projects in 2026.”

“A precedent already exists with the renegotiated Mersey Ferry contract that saw an original work share agreement with Damen in 2022 shelved the following year in favour of full design and construction of the vessel at the APCL Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead.” A similar approach, he said, could protect capability and skills during the period between Glen Rosa’s completion and the start of any future ferry build.

The concerns echo those raised in the Lords, where Lord Beamish challenged why the order had been sent abroad despite national policy commitments. Defence minister Lord Coaker later confirmed in written answers that shipbuilding was not tendered separately and that there was “no policy requirement to engage for this procurement”. He also confirmed that ministers were aware of Dutch legal proceedings and would “take appropriate action should a conviction occur”, though he stressed the MoD has no direct contract with Damen.

Industry figures warn that outsourcing through private service providers has become a route through which industrial opportunities slip offshore with limited scrutiny. At Holyrood’s Cross Party Group on Maritime and Shipbuilding, participants said the 24-vessel programme could have provided several years of stable output across UK yards, and criticised the inability of ministers to direct industrial outcomes once shipbuilding is embedded inside a larger services procurement.

Sweeney said the controversy demonstrates a structural problem rather than an isolated misstep. He told us the arrangement “militates against” the intent of the strategy to convert government demand into UK throughput. Ferguson Marine, he warned, faces “a prolonged period of underutilisation” without intervention, with skilled staff leaving due to uncertainty. Constructing the Damen vessels under licence, he said, would offer timely relief and align with stated government aims.