Parliament Workbench
Data: Votes to 12 Nov 2026

Vote · 2 Dec 2020

BiFab

Motion Key vote

Motion For Debate Motion S5M-23537 Lodged by Alex Rowley Lab as amended by Conservative
Carried by 1
61 For 60 Against 0 Abstained 8 Did not vote

What MSPs voted on: the motion as amended

Labour’s motion was changed by a Conservative amendment (S5M-23537.1) before this vote. A vote ‘for’ was a vote for Labour’s motion with the Conservatives’ changes.

That the Parliament believes that Scotland has the potential to lead Europe's green energy revolution over the coming decades; further believes that, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and job losses, green jobs will be central to creating new employment and training opportunities across Scotland; considers that, with the support of the workforce and their trades unions, the maximum effort has to be made to secure wind farm contracts for Scottish manufacturing companies; notes that, in open competition, BiFab won a £30 million contract to build turbine jackets for the NnG North Sea wind farm, work that could have started in January 2021, but has been prevented from going ahead with this; condemns the Scottish Government’s decision to withdraw the financial guarantee that was needed to enable this work to go ahead, thus risking Scotland’s reputation as a new green investment hub, and further condemns the Scottish Government’s failure to produce any legal opinion to justify its claim that support for BiFab was against the law; calls on it to act now to secure the future of the Burntisland Methil and Arnish yards, and the jobs that depend on them; further calls on it to talk to the workforce's representatives and to ask for the help of the UK Government through the joint working party to urgently negotiate with EDF and Saipem to find a solution that ensures that the NnG contract for eight wind turbine platforms is carried out in the yards, and, with Glasgow being the venue of the COP26 summit in December 2021, calls for a concrete plan to be published in January by the Scottish Government that ensures that future work on renewables comes to Scottish yards.S5M-23537.1 Conservative , and further calls on the Scottish Government to ensure that these policy commitments on renewables are part of a coherent industrial strategy for the post-COVID-19 era.

Final wording as read into the Official Report at Decision Time. The marked changes are worked out by this site from the amendment texts and match that wording.

Amendments

  1. S5M-23537.2 SNP Fiona Hyslop Defeated vote, 60–61
  2. S5M-23537.1 Conservative Liz Smith Agreed vote, 61–2
  3. S5M-23537.3 Green Mark Ruskell Not put to a vote (worked out by this site: never called at Decision Time: not selected or not moved)
The motion as originally lodged by Labour (not what was voted on)

That the Parliament believes that Scotland has the potential to lead Europe's green energy revolution over the coming decades; further believes that, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and job losses, green jobs will be central to creating new employment and training opportunities across Scotland; considers that, with the support of the workforce and their trades unions, the maximum effort has to be made to secure wind farm contracts for Scottish manufacturing companies; notes that, in open competition, BiFab won a £30 million contract to build turbine jackets for the NnG North Sea wind farm, work that could have started in January 2021, but has been prevented from going ahead with this; condemns the Scottish Government’s decision to withdraw the financial guarantee that was needed to enable this work to go ahead, thus risking Scotland’s reputation as a new green investment hub, and further condemns the Scottish Government’s failure to produce any legal opinion to justify its claim that support for BiFab was against the law; calls on it to act now to secure the future of the Burntisland Methil and Arnish yards, and the jobs that depend on them; further calls on it to talk to the workforce's representatives and to ask for the help of the UK Government through the joint working party to urgently negotiate with EDF and Saipem to find a solution that ensures that the NnG contract for eight wind turbine platforms is carried out in the yards, and, with Glasgow being the venue of the COP26 summit in December 2021, calls for a concrete plan to be published in January by the Scottish Government that ensures that future work on renewables comes to Scottish yards.

How the parties split

Every party voted as a bloc
PartySplitForAgainstAbst.AbsentMajority
SNP 0 60 0 1 ✗ Against united
Con 28 0 0 2 ✓ For united
Lab 22 0 0 1 ✓ For united
Green 5 0 0 1 ✓ For united
LD 5 0 0 0 ✓ For united
Ind 1 0 0 2 n/a
NPA 0 0 0 1 n/a

Party is the MSP's party on the day of the vote. Majority is how most of the party's voting MSPs voted.

Every MSP

129 MSPs

For (61)

Against (60)

Did not vote (8)

Lab 1