Parliamentary News Release

053/2003

Tuesday 16 September 2003

PARLIAMENT TO PUBLISH ADDITIONAL FEE DOCUMENTATION

In May the Presiding Officer George Reid and the Chief Executive took the decision to review confidentiality obligations in relation to contractual agreements for the Holyrood Project.

Following external legal advice, the Corporate Body today decided that a raft of documents relating to the contracts for the principal consultants should be made public.

The attached letter explains the background to this decision. Where erroneous information has been published it will now be corrected, and for the first time priced copies of the consultants’ contracts will be placed in the public domain.

Presiding Officer George Reid said:

“I am determined that the Parliament will work towards the principles of openness, transparency and accountability.

“This development will mean that previously unpublished information will now be published and any inaccuracies corrected.”

The SPCB today agreed to:

• Accept the opinion of Shepherd & Wedderburn, Parliament’s external legal adviser.
• Decide on the method by which erroneous PQ answers are corrected.
• Release signed contract documents in respect of the consultants.
• Determine as a matter of policy that operational papers in respect of the consultants’ contracts be not released at this time (except to Lord Fraser or the Auditor General) until project completion provided that no litigation is in progress or contemplated.
• Accept the reiterated legal advice from Shepherd & Wedderburn that documents in relation to Flour City are not disclosed on the basis that such disclosure might prejudice the SPCB’s options for recovery.
  

Link to the Presiding Officer’s Letter to the Finance Committee

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