Bomber concerns spark call for new Holyrood entrance

Published on Saturday 14 November 2009 10:19

SECURITY bosses at MI5 have demanded a special security hut is built in front of the Scottish Parliament because of suicide bomber fears.

The area where visitors currently walk through airport-style scanners is almost directly underneath the debating chamber.

MI5 says screening ought to take place before people enter the building and potentially have the chance to detonate a bomb.

Now the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body has agreed designs should be drawn up for an "external screening facility".

However, insiders say senior parliamentarians are reluctant to add an annex to the front of the showpiece building because of the appearance, the likely cost and some scepticism about the reality of the security threat.

The move comes as work is due to start on Monday on the latest phase of security improvements, which will see 162 new bollards and 18 concrete benches installed in front of the parliament and up the Royal Mile at a cost of 1.5 million.

A parliament insider said MI5 was insistent the security hut was necessary.

"Their concern is that the current arrangement means visitors are only screened once they are physically inside the building.

"And where the screening takes place is more or less directly under the debating chamber.

"They want to create a system where visitors are screened before they get into the building."

But the insider said parliamentarians were reluctant to spoil the appearance of the building or incur unknown extra expense.

Independent Lothians MSP Margo MacDonald said an opportunity to look at all the security issues had been missed when the parliament was first designed. She said: "Precautions have to be taken, but they have to be weighed in the balance with cost and likelihood.

"Right at the start, the politicians should maybe have had a frank exchange of views with MI5 to work out the risks."

&#149 A contraflow traffic system will be introduced in the Canongate when the installation of bollards begins there in the new year.