Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie has called for a ministerial-code investigation into Stephen Flynn after reports raised questions about his statement that he had not been briefed on a methane leak aboard the Glen Sannox.
Emails reported by the Scottish Sun and The Times indicate that official media lines and a response from ferry operator CalMac were sent to Flynn’s office shortly before he appeared before Holyrood’s transport committee on 9 September.
Asked at the committee whether he had been briefed, Flynn replied: “No, unless I have missed it.”
Baillie said: “There are serious questions to answer here – a public agency shouldn’t be denying its own work to save the blushes of a lazy minister not on top of his brief.”
The row concerns an incident in June 2025 in which around 700kg of methane was released over approximately 12 minutes while 82 passengers were aboard the CalMac ferry. The incident became public in September this year.
The reported email trail also shows that Flynn and an adviser later cleared a media line saying: “I was not briefed on this incident.”
Transport Scotland disputed the suggestion that the emails amounted to a briefing. It said a draft media statement was sent to the minister’s office shortly before the committee appearance but “was not shared with him”, and argued that a high-level media statement was not a formal briefing. It said a formal briefing was provided later.
No separate public response from Flynn to Baillie’s call for an investigation had been reported at the time of publication. The available documents do not establish that he read the earlier emails, and the dispute turns in part on whether information sent to his office constituted a briefing.
Baillie’s demand now places the question of what Flynn personally knew, and when, at the centre of the political row over the ferry incident.
