Civil servants move into Scottish Parliament
Today the Scottish Parliament has officially opened its doors to civil service staff after it received its formal health and safety certificates over the weekend.
All parliamentary staff are expected to have moved in by the third week in August, with security and IT staff among the first to take up the new offices.
The first official session will take place on Thursday 7th October, ahead of the Parliament’s formal opening by the Queen on October 9th.
MSPs left what was meant to be their temporary home on the Mound on July 1st after five years.
Originally, the cost of the Scottish Parliament, designed by Spanish architect Enric Miralles, was estimated to be around £109 million. The overall cost of the building is now predicted to be £420 million.
The project has been dogged by problems, with its architect, Mr Miralles, dying following a short illness in July 2000, followed by the sudden death of the Scottish First Minister Donald Dewar from a brain haemorrhage in October 2000.
By 2003, it was announced an inquiry would be held into the spiralling costs of constructing the Scottish Parliament building. The result was the Fraser Inquiry, which is due to report at the end of the month.
Sir George Reid, the Scottish Parliament’s Presiding Officer, has taken a personal interest in the final stages of the project as he is determined that there will be no more delays to the project.
Speaking to Radio Scotland this morning, he said: “It would’ve been a disaster for example if the opening had been delayed until spring of next year”.
“I’ve no doubt this is a world-class building and a world heritage site… This is a building of major importance on a European scale.”
Sir George urged the media and the Scottish public to turn their attentions towards the issues in Scottish politics and “get back to building a better Scotland.”
