Forth Road Bridge closure: What has Derek Mackay been saying?

Scotland's Transport Minister Derek Mackay is accused of misleading parliament about past maintenance works on the Forth Road Bridge which was closed for essential repairs last week. So, what has he been saying?

08 December - Derek Mackay's statement to parliament

Conservative MSP Alex Johnstone: "Does the minister have any comment to make on the document that was published on the public contracts Scotland website on 25 May 2010, which is headed "Truss End Links" and concerns the Forth road bridge, the status of which is now "Cancelled"?

Derek Mackay: "I have offered all political parties a full technical briefing and an explanation of mitigation measures. The only party that I know has not taken up that offer is the Conservative Party, which is perhaps why Alex Johnstone is so ill informed. I would have thought that, in listening to the statement, Alex Johnstone would have understood some of the issues that he is asking about.

"The key point is that Feta was in operation at the time. The works that the member has identified are not where the fault has occurred. The specific crack was not predicted. It has emerged in the past few weeks. It was identified on Tuesday, a recommendation was made to ministers on Thursday and action was taken within minutes.

"Feta, which was responsible at the time, had a work programme that it was working through and it did not identify the fault. With regard to the technical nature of that contract, FETA re-scoped its own works and was getting on with the job.

"After 1 June, on transition to the Scottish Government and our operation with Amey, we inherited the work programme. We were delivering that and were strengthening brackets that had been identified when this quite unrelated fault emerged. Government took the swiftest action possible."

09 December - Derek Mackay is interviewed on BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme

Gary Robertson: "On that replacement of the section in 2010 which was cancelled, we were told that it would involve a complete redesign of the truss end linkages which failed. Is that the case?"

Derek Mackay: "Well, it is the point, that a much bigger job beyond what they felt was proportionate at the time - a much bigger job would have led to a much longer closure to carry out that more extensive work. But the advice they seem to have had at the time, it was that carrying out the strengthening works as identified would remedy what they had identified as the problem, not the location of this specific fault that is unrelated to those works."

Gary Robertson: "So, just to be absolutely clear, so this work planned in 2010, which was subsequently cancelled, would not have seen the replacement of this particular area where the fault has occurred?"

Derek Mackay: "Well, it would have seen the replacement of that area and much more. The point is what Feta.....

Gary Robertson: "So, did we miss an opportunity in 2010 to prevent what has happened this week?"

Derek Mackay: "Well, Feta the operating company at the time, would have been informed that other works would have addressed what was identified to be the problem. On that advice they rescoped their works and that's what we have inherited. But I can say again the three weeks - that's the closure that's planned, that's the duration of the works to have the works complete and re-opened - the duration of any works to do a much more comprehensive job would have been much longer than that. But that was a decision taken by Feta given the information at the time."

09 December - Derek Mackay responds at Holyrood to Labour criticism

Derek Mackay: "Let me be clear, the fault in the specific piece of bridge truss that we are repairing now was not broken in 2010.

"The fault we are currently repairing occurred in the last few weeks. This specific part we are currently working on was not identified as in need of repair in 2010.

"In 2010 the works proposed were for a far greater area. A decision was taken by Feta that it was not necessary to replace the entire area which would have involved a lengthy and unnecessary closure of the bridge.

"Indeed a less disruptive set of works was put together which was under way."