Holyrood to lavish £67k on technology

Published on Tuesday 8 August 2006 11:43

SCOTTISH Parliament bosses are to spend nearly £67,000 upgrading seven rooms with new technology in the latest round of cash to be lavished on gizmos at the Holyrood building.

The money will be used to ensure each of the rooms has its own television and Powerpoint technology instead of having to share equipment.

But MSPs today questioned why such a large sum was having to be spent less than two years after the move to the new 431 million parliament.

And while thousands are now being spent on new equipment and furniture for meeting rooms, a large conference room at the parliament specially designed with high-spec audio-visual equipment, has been turned into a coffee lounge for MSPs.

The latest upgrade follows revelations last year that more than 8m of taxpayers' money had been spent on equipping MSPs and staff with the latest technology, leaving some politicians with five or more computers each.

When the Holyrood building was being prepared for opening, the parliament also spent 663,000 on kitting it out with 322 wide-screen televisions for MSPs and staff, together with 60 other screens, including large plasma screens for the chamber.

Liberal Democrat MSP Donald Gorrie wondered why IT equipment was needed in the meeting rooms. He said: "These rooms are for small gatherings of six to 12 people - you can speak to each other, or is that considered old fashioned? I don't think there's any need for a lot of gizmos."