Lochaber smelter guarantee consultancy costs skyrocket to £800,000 in last year and £1.6m overall

The soaring costs comes as the Scottish Government continues to work behind the scenes on the impact of the collapse of Greensill Capital on GFG Alliance, the owners of the Lochaber smelter.
Critics labelled the figures “staggering” and was a “disastrous indictment of SNP industrial policy”.
In 2016, ministers agreed a £586m guarantee with Liberty Steel, a subsidiary of GFG Alliance.
The agreement saw the Scottish Government guarantee 25 years of power purchases by Mr Gupta’s company from another business owned by his father, with the guarantee funding the purchase of the aluminium smelter.
The exposure to the taxpayer due to the deal was valued at the time as £586m, with the government stating that the remaining exposure sits at £284m with 20 years of the guarantee left to run.
Ministers said recent accounts valued the assets in Fort William at £438m.
Questions have also been raised about whether the deal may have breached state aid rules.
Deloitte has been working for the Scottish Government for five years on the Lochaber deal, providing quarterly updates on the guarantee.
This includes examining whether Liberty Steel has been adhering to the terms of the deal and advising the government on how to mitigate the collapse of the company’s main funders, Greensill.
The cost of this work has skyrocketed in the last year, rising to more than £800,000 for the 2021 financial year, figures only released following a freedom of information request by The Scotsman.
This is a significant rise compared to previous years.
In 2017 Deloitte were paid £112,000, rising to £180,000 in 2018, £350,000 in 2019 before dropping to £218,000 in 2020.
Scottish Labour’s finance spokesperson, Daniel Johnson, said this is taxpayer money being spent due to an “SNP secured dodgy deal”.
He said: “The numbers involved are staggering and the public are right to ask questions as to why this contract was needed and why the costs have escalated so much.
“After the ferry fiasco- this is another deal in a litany of dubious contracts signed by the SNP.”
Scottish Liberal Democrat economy spokesperson, Willie Rennie, added: “If only the Lochaber deal had proven as lucrative for the Scottish government or the highland economy as it has for Deloitte.
“Ministers struck a deal that they said would provide 2,000 jobs for the town. Those jobs have never been delivered but international business consultants have raked in hundreds of thousands in fees.
“This is a disastrous indictment of SNP industrial policy.”
The Scottish Government has been contacted for comment.