Parliament reveals Holyrood costs at £16m

Scotland's Holyrood building project has crept nearer to the estimated £350m figure mark after the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) confirmed today (Monday) that costs to add bomb-proofing to the building will be £16m.

The project, which is managed by Bovis Lend Lease and was last valued at £294.6m, will now be delayed four months until August 2003 while additional cladding, incorporated into the designs following the terrorist attacks of September 11, is added to the structure.

In a letter to the Parliament's Finance Committee, the SPCB added that August remained the target date and that the £16m figure was broken down into £6.6m for extending contracts and maintenance on site, while £9.3m accounted for acceleration measures required to complete the revised programme by the end of August.

The SPCB added that these figures were provisional and that the results of the full formal risk review, on which forward budgets are based, will be reported to the Finance Committee early in the new year.

Meanwhile, the Scottish National Party's leader John Swinney MSP said that the spiralling costs stood "fairly and squarely at the door of New Labour".

He added: "Labour ministers chose the site, the type of contract, the architect and the design of the building, all before the Scottish Parliament was elected in 1999."