Holyrood inquiry cost over £700,000

The final bill for the Fraser inquiry into problems on the £414.4m Holyrood parliament building project has been estimated at over £700,000.

The audited accounts, published by the Scottish Executive, reveal that Tory peer Lord Fraser - who carried out the investigation into why the project was delivered three years late and 11 times the original budget - was paid £127,659 in fees.

Other costs included £215,684 spent on legal support and £169,940 on technical and PR consultancy. The overall costs for the inquiry totaled £717,426.

The inquiry sat for 43 days but in its findings it criticised politicians and civil servants but found “no single villain of the piece".