No guarantees over Holyrood completion date, says Reid

There are no guarantees that the £373.9m Holyrood project will be finished by the end of the year, the Scottish Parliament's presiding officer George Reid told MSPs yesterday (Wednesday).

In his progress report on the project, which is running two-and-a-half years late and £250m over budget, Reid said that problems with the glazing on the parliament building will delay the contract.

Difficulties have arisen in drawing up a timetable for the work that suits both the glazing contractors and other building firms working on site at the same time.

However Reid said that Bovis, the construction manager for the project, was "continuing to work hard on our behalf to secure the best dates for completion across site".

He added: "In particular they (Bovis) are focussing on the work of Drawn Metal and Mero, two of our specialist glazing contractors, and Bovis staff have been directly seconded into these companies' teams on site to secure comprehensive programme information by August."

Reid also assured MSPs that the estimated final cost of the delayed project remained at £373.9m.

But the project's Spanish architect EMBT came in for stiff criticism from Reid after failing to provide a response on the government's move to caps fees paid to the project team.

"I am determined to continue to apply pressure on this matter in order to protect the public interest," he said.

A spokesman at EMBT's Barcelona headquarters said the company could not comment on the report.