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The Scottish Parliament Building is the home of the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, within the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Edinburgh. Construction on the building commenced in June 1999 and the Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) held their first debate in the new Parliament on Tuesday, 7 September 2004. The formal opening by Queen Elizabeth II took place on 9 October 2004. Enric Miralles, the Catalan architect who designed the building, died during the course of its construction.

From 1999 until the opening of the new building in 2004, committee rooms and the debating chamber of the Scottish Parliament were temporarily housed in the General Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland located on The Mound in Edinburgh. Office and administrative accommdation in support of the Parliament were provided in buildings leased from Edinburgh City Council. The new Scottish Parliament Building brought together these different elements into one purpose built parliamentary complex, housing 129 MSPs and over 400 staff and civil servants.

From the outset, the building and its construction has proven to be highly controversial. The choice of location, architect, design and construction company have all been criticised by politicians, the media and the Scottish public. Having been scheduled for opening in 2001, when it finally opened in 2004, the building was over three years late with an estimated final cost of £431m, substantially higher than initial costings of between £10m and £40m. A major public inquiry into the handling of the construction, chaired by the former Lord Advocate, Peter Fraser was established in 2003. The Inquiry concluded in September 2004 and criticised the management of the whole project from the realisation of cost increases down to the way in which major design changes were implemented.

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Location

Comprising an area of 4 acres (16,187.4 m²) with a perimeter of 480 metres (1574.8 ft), the Scottish Parliament building is located 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) east of Edinburgh city centre on the edge of the Old Town. The large site previously housed the headquarters of the Scottish and Newcastle brewery which were demolished to make way for the construction of the building. The boundary of the site is marked by the Canongate stretch of the Royal Mile on its northern side, Horse Wynd on its eastern side, in front of the public entrance to the building and Reid's Close on its western side. Reid's Close connects the Canongate and Holyrood Road on the southwestern side of the complex. The south eastern side of the complex is bounded by the Our Dynamic Earth visitor attraction which opened in July 1999, and Queen's Drive which fringes the slopes of the Salisbury Crags.

In the immediate vicinity of the building is the Palace of Holyroodhouse, which is bordered by the broad expanse of Holyrood Park. To the south of the parliamentary complex are the steep slopes of the Salisbury Crags and Arthur's Seat. The Holyrood area, to the west of the site, has been extensively redeveloped since 1998, with new retail, hotel and office developments, including the new offices of The Scotsman group.

Project history

Before 1707, Scotland was a sovereign independent state and retained its own legislature - the Parliament of Scotland - which met, latterly, at Parliament House on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. The Act of Union, passed in 1707, created an incorporating political union between the Kingdoms of Scotland and England. The Union merged both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England into the Parliament of Great Britain which was housed at Westminster in London. As a consequence, Scotland was directly governed from London for the next 292 years without a legislature or Parliament building of its own.

The Labour government of Tony Blair, elected in May 1997, initiated a process of home rule with an aim to restore devolved government to Scotland, within the unitary state of the United Kingdom. A referendum of the Scottish electorate, held on 11 September 1997, approved the establishment of a directly elected Scottish Parliament to legislate on most domestic affairs.

Following the "Yes" vote on establishing a Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Office, led by the then Secretary of State for Scotland, Donald Dewar, decided that a new purpose built facility would be constructed in Edinburgh, to house the Scottish Parliament.

Initially, three sites in and around Edinburgh were considered as possible locations for the building, including St Andrew's House then home of the Scottish Office - later the Scottish Executive; Victoria Quay at Leith docks and Haymarket in the west end of the city. The Holyrood site was not an early contender as it was deemed that it would not be ready in the required timescale. However negotiations with Scottish and Newcastle, who owned the land, resulted in the company indicating that they would be able to vacate the site in early 1999. As a consequence, the Secretary of State for Scotland agreed that the Holyrood site merited inclusion on the shortlist of proposed locations. The Scottish Office commissioned feasibility studies of the specified areas in late 1997 and in January 1998, the Holyrood site was selected from the shortlist.

Following on from the site selection, the Scottish Office announced that an international competition would be held to find a designer for a new building to house the Parliament. A design team was appointed under the chairmanship of Dewar, and was tasked with choosing from a shortlist of designs. Proposals were submitted from internationally renowned architects such as Rafael Vinoly, Michael Wilford and Richard Meier. Twelve designs were selected in March 1998, which were whittled down to five by the following May. The five final designs were put on public display throughout Scotland in June 1998. Feedback from the public displays showed that the designs of the Catalan architect Enric Miralles were amongst the most popular. The design team took account of public opinion on the designs and invited all 5 shortlisted entrants to make presentations on their proposed designs before announcing a winner.

On 6 July 1998, it was declared that the design of Enric Miralles was chosen, with work being awarded to EMBT/RMJM (Scotland) Ltd, a Spanish-Scottish joint venture design company, specifically created for the project. Construction commenced in June 1999, with the demolition of the Scottish and Newcastle brewery and the beginning of foundation work to support the structure of the building. MSP's began to move into the building complex in the Summer of 2004, with the official opening by the Queen taking place in October of the same year.

Parliamentary complex

The Parliament is actually a campus of several buildings, reflecting different architectural styles, with a total floor area of 31,000 m²; (312,000 ft²), providing accommodation for MSPs, their researchers and parliamentary staff. The building is comprised of a variety of features, with the most distinctive external characterisation being that the roof of the Tower Buildings is said to be reminiscent of upturned boats on the shoreline. It is said that in the first design meeting, Miralles, armed with some twigs and leaves, thrust them onto a table and declared "This is the Scottish Parliament" reinforcing the unique and abstact nature of the parliamentary campus. Miralles also stated that:

We don't want to forget that the Scottish Parliament will be in Edinburgh, but will belong to Scotland, to the Scottish land. The Parliament should be able to reflect the land it represents. The building should arise from the sloping base of Arthur's seat and arrive into the city almost surging out of the rock.

— 

1. 1. px, in Enric Miralles, 1999, , ##px

The result was a non-hierarchical, organic collection of low lying buildings which Miralles and his partner Benedetta Tagliabue wanted to blend in with the surrounding landscape. As a consequence the building has many features connected to nature and land, such as the leaf shaped motifs of the roof in the Garden Lobby of the building, and the large windows of the debating chamber, committee rooms and the Tower Buildings which face the broad expanse of Holyrood Park, Arthur's Seat and the Salisbury Crags. Inside the buildings, the connection to the land is reinforced by the use of Scottish rock such as gneiss and granite in the flooring and walls, and the use of oak and sycamore in the construction of the furniture.

The south-eastern aspect of the parliamentary complex is extensively landscaped. Concrete "branches", covered in turf and wild grass extend from the parliamentary buildings, and provide members of the public with somewhere to sit and relax. Indigenous Scottish wildflowers and plants cover much of the area, blending the parliament's grounds with the nearby Holyrood Park and Salisbury Crags. Oak, Rowan, Lime and Cherry trees have also been planted in the grounds. Adjacent to the landcaped area of the complex, where it meets Horse Wynd, there is an open plan piazza, with bike racks, seating and external lighting shaped like rocks incorporated into concrete paving. Three distinctive water features provide the centrepiece for this area.

The Scottish Parliament Building was designed with a number of sustainability features in mind. The decision to build the Parliament on a brownfield site and its proximity to hubs of public transport are seen as sustainable, environmentally friendly features. Bore holes beneath the parliamentary campus provide water for the toilet facilities and for the internal cooling system. A minimum of 80% of the electricity purchased for the building is required to come from renewable sources, and solar panels on the Canongate Building are used for heating water in the complex.

Public reaction to the design of the building has been mixed. In the first 6 months of the building being open to the public, 250,000 people visited it, which Presiding Officer George Reid has said showed the public were "voting with their feet". Critics of the building, such as Margo MacDonald, have pointed at that the high number of visitors do not prove that all of them like the building. The building has also won a number of awards, including an award at the VIII Biennial of Spanish Architecture, the RIAS Andrew Doolan Award for Architecture, and the Stirling Prize, Britain's highest architecture award. The inclusion of the Scottish Parliament Building onto the shortlist for the Stirling Prize in 2004, led the judges to describe the building as "a statement of sparkling excellence".

The Scottish Parliament Building is open to visitors all year round. On non-sitting days, normally Mondays, Fridays and weekends as well as during parliamentary recess periods, visitors are able to view the Main Hall of the building and can access the public galleries of the debating chamber and main committee rooms. Guided tours are also available on non-sitting days and these allow visitors access to the floor of the chamber, the Garden Lobby, Queensberry House and committee rooms in the company of a parliamentary guide. On sitting days, members of the public must purchase tickets for the public galleries of both the chamber and committee rooms.

Debating chamber

The Debating Chamber contains a shallow horseshoe of seating for the MSPs, with the governing party sitting in the middle of the semicircle and opposition parties on either side, similar to other European legislatures. Such an elliptical layout, is intended to blur political divisions and principally reflects the desire to encourage consensus amongst elected members. This is contrasted with the "adverserial" layout reminiscent of other Westminster style national legislatures, including the British House of Commons, where government and opposition sit across from one another. There are 131 desks and chairs on the floor of the chamber for all the elected members of the Scottish Parliament and members of the Scottish Executive. The desks are constructed out of oak and sycamore and are fitted with a lectern, microphone and in-built speakers as well as the electronic voting equipment used by MSPs. Galleries above the main floor can also accommodate a total of 255 members of the public, 18 guests and 34 members of the press.

The most notable feature of the chamber is the roof. The roof is supported by a structure of laminated oak beams joined with a total of 112 stainless steel connectors (each slightly different), which in turn are suspended on steel rods from the walls. Such a structure enables the debating chamber to span over 30m, without any supporting columns. In entering the chamber, MSPs pass under a stone lintel - the Arniston Stone - that was once part of the pre-1707 parliament building, Parliament House. The use of the Arniston Stone in the structure of the debating chamber symbolises the connection between the historical Parliament of Scotland and the present day Scottish Parliament.

Cut into the western wall of the debating chamber are laminated glass panels, of different shapes, intended to give a human dimension to the chamber. At night, light is shone through the glass panels and is projected onto the MSPs desks to create the impression that the chamber is never unoccupied. Natural light in the centre of the chamber is provided by "glass fins" which run down from light spaces in the ceiling.

MSP building

The MSP building is connected to the Tower Buildings by way of the "Garden Lobby" and stands at the western end of the parliamentary complex, adjoining Reid's Close. The block contains offices for each MSP and two members of staff, fitted out with custom designed furniture. The building is between four and six storeys in height, and is clad in granite mosaic. MSPs occupy 108 of the total 114 rooms in the building. Each office is divided into two parts - one for the MSP, with a floor space of 15 m² (161 ft²) and another part for their staff, which has a floor space of 12 m² (129 ft²). The most distinctive feature of the MSP block are the unusual windows which project out from the building onto the western elevation of the parliamentary complex, said to be inspired by Henry Raeburn's painting "The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch". In each office, these bay windows have a seat and shelving, which have been called "contemplation spaces" or "think pods". Constructed from stainless steel and framed in oak, with oak lattices covering the glass, the windows are designed to provide MSPs with privacy and shade from the sun. Criticism has been levelled, at the design of the windows, by the MSPs themselves who cite that the design blocks out natural light from their offices. To remove the uniformity from the western side of the building, the windows jut out from the façade of the building at different widths and angles. At its north end, the building is six storeys high (ground floor plus five) stepping down to four storeys (ground floor plus three) at the south end.

Other buildings

Four tower buildings fan out along the front, or eastern edge of the parliamentary complex and are notable for the curvature of their roofs. The Tower Buildings are home to the public entrance of the Scottish Parliament and to the Main Hall which is located on the eastern side of the parliamentary complex, beneath the debating chamber. A stone vaulted ceiling is the principal feature of the Main Hall, which has cross like representations carved into it, reminiscent of the Scottish saltire - the national flag of Scotland. The main hall contains permanent exhibitions on the role of the Scottish Parliament, as well as public seating, visitor information desk, shop, lockers and creche. Like much of the parliamentary complex, the materials used to construct the Main Hall and its vaulted ceiling include Kemnay Granite from Aberdeenshire in north east Scotland and Caithness stone which is used in much of the flooring in the buildings. Connected to the Tower Buildings in the eastern portion of the complex are the Media and Canongate Buildings, which house the IT and procurement departments of the Parliament building as well as media offices and the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe). The centrepiece of the Canongate Building is a two-storey cantilever structure, with the building connected at one end by reinforced concrete and 18 metres (59 ft) of the building suspended above ground and protruding outwards unsupported by any columns.

Originally dating from 1667, Queensberry House is an example of a seventeenth century Georgian, Edinburgh townhouse, and contrasts with the modern architecture of the rest of the parliamentary complex. For much of its modern history, Queensberry House has been used as a hospital, army barracks, refuge and geriatric hospital. In 1996, the geriatric hospital closed and the building was incorporated into the Scottish and Newcastle brewery, who owned the surrounding site. The building has been extensively refurbished, and returned to its original height of 3 storeys to provide facilities for the Presiding Officer, Deputy Presiding Officers, the Chief Executive of the Scottish Parliament and various parliamentary support staff. Internally and externally the building has been strengthened with reinforced steel and concrete. The original timber flooring has been replaced throughout with a mixture of carpet, vinyl, oak and Caithness stone. Queensberry House also contains the Donald Dewar Room, dedicated to the founding First Minister of Scotland who died in October 2000. The room hosts the personal collection of books and other memorablia donated to the Parliament, by the family of Donald Dewar after his death.

The Garden Lobby is at the centre of the parliamentary complex and connects the debating chamber, committee rooms and administrative offices of the Tower Buildings, with Queensberry House and the MSP building. The Garden Lobby is the place where official events as well as TV interviews normally take place and is used as an open social space for MSPs and parliamentary staff. The main feature of the Garden Lobby are the rooflights, which when viewed from above resemble leaves and allow natural light into the building. The rooflights are made from stainless steel and the glasswork is covered by a lattice of solid oak struts.

Artwork and features

There is a wide variety of artwork and sculptures in the Scottish Parliament ranging from specially commissioned pieces to official gifts from overseas parliamentary delegations. The intention of including artwork and sculptures in the building reinforces the desire of Miralles that the project should reflect the nature of Scotland, particularly its land and people. In order to facilitate the incorporation of art into the building, a consultative steering group was established by the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) under the chairmanship of Jamie Stone MSP with the remit of deciding which artworks should be chosen. Over 80 pieces of artwork have been chosen by the steering group to be displayed in the building.

As well as artwork and sculptures, quotations, furniture and photography have been commissioned as part of the art strategy. A range of quotations have been inscribed onto the stonework in and around the parliamentary complex. Beneath the Canongate Building façade is the Canongate Wall, constructed from a variety of indigenous Scottish rocks such as Lewisian gneiss, Torridian sandstone and Easdale slate. The stones are set into large concrete casts, each one inscribed with a quotation. There are a total of 24 quotations on the Canongate Wall. Etched along the lower stretch of the wall is a pictoral representation of the Old Town of Edinburgh based around a sketch by Enric Miralles showing the view of the Old Town from his bedroom window in the Balmoral Hotel.

The Main Hall of the Parliament contains a number of distinctive features and sculptures, including the gold plated "Honours of Scotland" sculpture. Presented by the Queen, upon the opening of the Parliament building, the sculpture is modelled on the actual Honours of Scotland - the crown, sceptre and the sword of the state and combines these three separate elements into one composition. During meetings of the original Parliament of Scotland, the actual Honours were always present but since 1819 have been permanently housed in Edinburgh Castle. The 11m (36ft) long Visitor Information Desk also stands in the Main Hall. Commissioned by the art strategy group, the desk combines a unique design constructed from oak and sycamore and functions as a workstation for 6 members of parliamentary staff. At a cost of £88,000 the desk has been criticised by some over its price and functionality.

Another feature gifted to the Scottish Parliament by the Queen, following its inauguration in July 1999, is the parliamentary mace. The mace is housed in a glass case in the debating chamber, and has a formal, ceremonial role during meetings of the Parliament. The mace sits in front of the Presiding Officers' desk and is made from silver and inlaid with gold panned from Scottish rivers and inscribed with the words: Wisdom, Compassion, Justice and Integrity. The words - There shall be a Scottish Parliament (which are the first words of the Scotland Act 1998), are inscribed around the head of the mace. At the beginning of each session in the chamber, the case is removed to symbolise that a full meeting of the Parliament is taking place.

On many of the buildings there are a series of "trigger panels", constructed out of timber or granite. These have been said to represent anvils, hairdryers, guns, question marks or even the hammer and sickle, but shortly after the official opening of the building, Enric Miralles' widow, Benedetta Tagliabue, revealed that the design is simply that of a window curtain pulled back.

Problems

Timeline of cost increases

The construction of the Scottish Parliament Building has generated controversy in several respects. Rising costs, and the use of public money to fund the project generated most controversy. Initial estimates for constructing a new building were projected to be between £10m and £40m in 1997. By early 2004, the estimated final cost of the project was set at £430m, some ten times greater.

Controversy

Notwithstanding the level of controversy surrounding cost, the Scottish Parliament Building proved controversial in a number of other respects: the decision to construct a new building, the choice of site, the selection of a non-Scottish architect, and the selection of Bovis as construction manager after having earlier been excluded from the shortlist. In 1997, the intial cost of constructing a new Parliament building was given as £40 million, a figure produced by the Scottish Office, prior to the September 1997 devolution referendum, and subsequently revealed to be the figure for housing MSPs. Further controversy surrounding the project sprang from the selection of the Holyrood site (which was a late entrant onto the list of sites to be considered) and the rejection of the Royal High School on Calton Hill, long thought to be the home of any future devolved Scottish Parliament. After a formal visit to the Royal High School by Dewar and his aides on 30 May 1997, it was rejected as unsuitable on the grounds of size and location.

Control of the building project passed from the Scottish Office, to the cross party Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body on 1 June 1999, headed by the Parliament's then Presiding Officer, Sir David Steel, at a time of increasing costs. Rising costs sprang from the need for a formal entrance and the need to accommodate parliamentary staff in light of better knowledge of how Parliament was working at its primary location on the Royal Mile, where it was clear there were staff overcrowding problems. With the cost increases in mind, and heightened media interest in the Holyrood Project, the Members of the Scottish Parliament held a debate on whether to continue with construction on 17 June 1999 voting by a majority of 66 to 57 in favour to complete the project.

In August 1999, the architect informed the project group that the Parliament would need to be further increased in size by 4000 m² (43,055 ft²). A subsequent costing revealed that taking into account the increased floorspace net construction costs had risen to £115m by September 1999. Early in 2000, the SPCB commissioned an independent report by the architect John Spencely. The report concluded that savings of 20% could be made on the current project and that scrapping the project completely at that stage, or moving to another site would entail additional costs of £30m. Spencely also cited poor communication between the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body and construction officials as increasingly costly. Given the outcomes of the Spencely report MSPs voted to continue with the construction project, on the Holyrood site, in a debate in the Scottish Parliament on 5 April 2000.

The project was also complicated by the death in July 2000 of Miralles, of Dewar the following October, and the existence of a multi-headed client consisting of the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body, the Presiding Officer, and an architectural advisor. The client took over the running of the project from the Scottish Executive (formerly the Scottish Office) while it was already under construction. Subsequently, the events of 9/11 led to further design changes, especially with regard to security, which again resulted in rising costs. However, it was later rejected that the re-designs required to incorporate greater security into the building structure were the "single biggest" factor affecting the increased costs of the project.

By March 2004 the cost had reached the sum of £430m (compared to an original budget of £55m in July 1998 when the architects were appointed). This equates to £85 for each of the 5.1 million people in Scotland. A report published by the Auditor General for Scotland in July 2004 specifically identified elements that contributed to both increasing costs and the delay in completing the project. His report criticised the overall management of the project, and stated that had the management and construction process been executed better, costs could have been saved. The report attempted to identify the reasons why there had been an acceleration in cost from £195m in September 2000 to £431m in February 2004 and concluded that over 2000 design changes to the project were a major factor. The building was finally certified for occupation in the Summer of 2004, with the official opening in October of the same year, three years behind schedule.

Fraser Inquiry

Criticisms

In May 2003 the First Minister, Jack McConnell, announced a major public inquiry into the handling of the building project, headed by Lord Fraser of Carmyllie. The inquiry was held at the Scottish Land Court in Edinburgh and took evidence from architects, civil servants, politicians and the building companies. Evidence was taken over the course of 49 hearings and the final report ran to 300 pages.

Presenting his report in September 2004, Lord Fraser told how he was "astonished" that year after year the ministers who were in charge were kept so much in the dark over the increases in cost estimates. He also stated that a Parliament building of sufficient scale could never have been built for less than £50m, and was "amazed" that the belief that it could be was perpetuated for so long. He believed that from at least April 2000, when MSPs commissioned the Spencely Report to decide whether the building should continue, it should have been realised that the building was bound to cost in excess of £200m. Furthermore, £150m of the final cost was wasted as a result of design delays, over-optimistic programming and uncertain authority.

Despite having only an outline design, the designers RMJM/EMBT (Scotland) Ltd stated without foundation that the building could be completed within a £50m budget. Nevertheless, these estimates were believed by officials. The two architectural practices in the RMJM and EMBT joint venture operated dysfunctionally, and failed to communicate effectively with each other and the project manager. The death of Miralles also gave rise to a substantial period of disharmony. The Brief emphasised the importance of design and quality over cost, and was not updated despite considerable evolution of the design. Ministers were not informed of grave concerns within the Scottish Office over the cost of the project, and officials failed to take the advice of the cost consultants.

The Scottish Office decided to let the construction work as a "construction management contract", rather than under the Private Finance Initiative in order to speed construction, but without properly evaluating the financial risks of doing so, and - in a decision that Fraser stated "beggars belief" - without asking Ministers to approve it. This was one of the two most flawed decisions. The second most flawed decision was the insistence on a rigid programme. Officials decided that rapid delivery of the new building was to be the priority, but that quality should be maintained. It was therefore inevitable that the cost would suffer. The client was obsessed with early completion and failed to understand the impact on cost and the completion date if high-quality work and a complex building were required. In attempting to achieve early completion, the management contractor produced optimistic programmes, to which the architects were unwise to commit. The main causes of the slippage were delays in designing a challenging project that was to be delivered against a tight timetable using an unusual procurement route.

The inquiry was widely seen as clearing Donald Dewar for the initial mishandling of the project. This came after speculation suggesting that Dewar was aware that the initial costs a new Parliament building, circulated to the public, were too low. However in his report, Lord Fraser stated "there was no evidence whatsoever, that he (Dewar) deliberately or knowingly misled MSPs. He relied on cost figures given to him by senior civil servants".

Reaction and recommendations

In his report, Lord Fraser set out a number of recommendations stemming from the inquiry. Primarily, in terms of design selection and when using an international architect linking with a Scottish based firm, the report advised that a full analysis of the compatibility of different working cultures and practices needs to be made.

Lord Fraser advocated that when "construction management" contracts were used, civil servants or local government officials should evaluate the risks of such a contract and set out the advantages and disadvantages of embarking upon such a route before their political superiors. Alongside that recommendation, Lord Fraser stated that independent advisors should be retained and have the ability to communicate their advice to ministers, without those views being "filtered" by public officials. Similarly, where civil servants are part of large project management contracts, clear guidelines of governance should be set out and be as rigorous as standards applied in the private sector.

The inquiry also concluded that amendments to Scottish legislation were necessary in order to give the cross party SPCB greater powers. Combined with changes to legislation, the procedures of the Scottish Parliament should be altered in order for the Presiding Officer and SPCB to be scrutinised more fully and openly by MSPs. Lord Fraser also cited the importance of incorporating security features into the design brief, such that they shouldn't be treated as "add ons" to the design but fundamental parts of the initial assessment of any project.

Following publication of the report, Jack McConnell stated that the Fraser recommendations would be fully implemented, and that fundamental reform of the Civil Service was already under way, with trained professionals being recruited to handle such projects. The First Minister emphasised that he was keen to see an increase in the specialist skills of civil servants, in order for them to be able to administer projects of such magnitude in the future. John Elvidge, the senior civil servant in Scotland, admitted that best practice had not been followed and apologised for the way the project had been handled. He did not rule out the possibility of taking disciplinary action against civil service staff, although subsequent Scottish Executive investigations resulted in no action being taken against individual public officials involved with the project.

Further problems

On 2 March 2006, a beam in the roof of the debating chamber swung loose from its hinges during a debate, resulting in the evacuation of the debating chamber and the suspension of parliamentary business. Parliament moved to other premises while the whole roof structure was inspected and remedial works were carried out. The structural engineers, Arup, stated that the problem with the collapsed beam was entirely due to the failure of one bolt and the absence of another. There was no design fault. The engineers concluded, in a report to MSPs, that the damage is likely to have been done during construction work on the chamber roof, in the latter phases of the project. The report also indicated that whilst one of the bolts was missing, the other was broken and had damaged threads commensurate with being over tightened or jammed, which twisted the head off, or came close to doing so. For safety purposes the beam was sent for testing, whilst the entire roof structure was checked for any other faults. For two weeks following the collapse, full sessions of Parliament moved to The Hub, a converted church near Edinburgh Castle. Subsequently, business shifted to two Holyrood committee rooms that were converted into a makeshift chamber for two weeks before the Easter recess. Business returned to the debating chamber on May 12.

The final snag list for Scottish Parliament building, made before responsibility for repairs passed from the building contractors to the parliament, identified 890 outstanding snags.

Notes

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2. "Opening of Holyrood". Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 2006-10-29.
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4. ^ "Scotland's Parliament to start life in General Assembly Hall". Scottish Office. 1998-03-20. Retrieved 2006-10-27. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
5. "Staff Organisation". Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 2006-10-29.
6. "Speech by HM The Queen on the opening of the New Scottish Parliament building". "Certainly this new parliament building has had a difficult and controversial birth". Royal.gov.uk. 2004-10-09. Retrieved 2006-10-30. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
7. ^ Isobel White. "House of Commons Research Paper - Building the Scottish Parliament, The Holyrood Project" (PDF). House of Commons Library, 2005-01-12. Retrieved 2006-10-29. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
8. "Corporate Body issues February Report to Finance Committee". Scottish Parliament, 2004-02-24. Retrieved 2006-10-30.
9. ^ Peter Fraser (2004-09-15). "Speech of Lord Fraser on the Publication of the Holyrood Inquiry Report" (PDF). Holyrood Inquiry. Retrieved 2006-12-15.
10. "About Holyrood - Project History; Site Selected". Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 2006-10-27.
11. "Map of location of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh". Multimap. Retrieved 2006-10-27.
12. ^ "Scottish Parliament to be built at Holyrood". Scottish Office, 1998-01-09. Retrieved 2006-12-15.
13. ^ "Scottish Parliament Building Edinburgh" (PDF). Arup. Retrieved 2006-12-07.
14. ^ "The First Scottish Parliament: the Middle Ages – 1707". Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 2006-11-14.
15. "The Devolution Debate This Century". Scotland, Devolution Referendum. BBC. September 1997. Retrieved 2007-01-01. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
16. Matthew Leeke. "House of Commons Research Paper - An Introduction to devolution in the UK" (PDF). House of Commons Library, 2003-11-17. Retrieved 2007-01-01. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
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References

• Bain, S (2004): "Holyrood - The Inside Story", Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 0-7486-2065-6
• Balfour, A & McCrone, G (2005): "Creating a Scottish Parliament", StudioLR, ISBN 0-9550016-0-9
• Black, D (2001): "All the First Minister's Men - The truth behind Holyrood", Birlinn, ISBN 1-84158-167-4
• Dardanelli, P (2005): "Between Two Unions: Europeanisation and Scottish Devolution", Manchester University Press, ISBN 0-7190-7080-5
• Taylor, Brian (1999): "The Scottish Parliament", Polygon, Edinburgh, ISBN 1-902930-12-6
• Taylor, Brian (2002): "The Scottish Parliament: The Road to Devolution", Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 0-7486-1759-0
• Taylor, Brian (2002): "Scotland's Parliament, Triumph and Disaster", Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 0-7486-1778-7

See also

• Building construction
• List of buildings
• Architecture

External links

Parliament

• Live feeds from Scottish Parliament
• The Scottish Parliament - About Holyrood

The Fraser Report:

• Lord Fraser's report
• BBC Analysis of the Holyrood Inquiry

The architecture:

• Review of the building in The Guardian newspaper
• Article on construction of various elements of the building

55°57′7″N 3°10′29″W / 55.95194°N 3.17472°W / 55.95194; -3.17472

• 2004 architecture
• 2004 in Scotland
• Buildings and structures in Edinburgh
• Enric Miralles buildings
• Government buildings in Scotland
• Legislative buildings
• Politics in Edinburgh
• Public inquiries
• Scottish architecture
• Scottish political scandals
• Visitor attractions in Edinburgh