Prisons suffering most from delays to major Scottish infrastructure projects

New and updated prisons at HMP Glasgow and Greenock have been delayed by one and two years respectively, pushing their expected completion date back to 2024, while the new £80+ million jail in Inverness has been delayed for another 16 months and will not be ready until March 2023.

Schools and health centres are also among the 25 out of 55 projects which have been pushed back or were delivered behind schedule.

The delays were revealed in Scottish Labour analysis of the latest Infrastructure Investment Plan update.

Colin Smyth, Labour’s transport, infrastructure and connectivity spokesperson, said: “Infrastructure investment should be what is powering our economy from the ground up, creating good quality direct jobs, further work in the supply chain and ultimately better public services.

“But under the SNP projects are too often behind schedule and handed to companies who aren’t delivering good quality work.”

Welcoming the release of the Infrastructure Investment Plan last week, infrastructure secretary Michael Matheson said that more than £1.4bn was invested in infrastructure projects opened across Scotland in 2018-19.

Labour analysis of the Scottish Government’s Infrastructure Investment Plan update for March 2019 shows key projects have suffered delays since the previous publication in September 2018.