McLeish quizzed on Holyrood

The former first minister was an architect of devolution

Former first minister Henry McLeish will be one of a host of ex-ministers giving evidence to the inquiry into the Holyrood building project when it opens next week.

Mr McLeish will give evidence on Tuesday, the second day of Lord Fraser of Carmyllie's inquiry into the spiralling cost and delays to the project to build a Scottish Parliament.

The list of witnesses who will give evidence in the first week also includes former Scottish Executive ministers Sam Galbraith and Wendy Alexander.

All will be giving evidence on what happened in the crucial period after Labour came to power at Westminster in the 1997 General Election landslide.

Mr Galbraith and Mr McLeish were both ministers in the former Scottish Office before the creation of the Scottish Parliament in 1999.

Ms Alexander was a former special advisor to Donald Dewar before he became first minister.

INSIDE THE INQUIRY

See the courtroom from the bench and the witness chair

In pictures

All were key players in the top echelon when decisions were made about the location and shape of Scotland's new parliament.

Lord Fraser has promised to leave no stone unturned in his quest to find out how the cost rose from an initial projection of £40m to the current estimate of £400m.

"The opening week's evidence will concentrate on a period following the General Election of 1997, the devolution White Paper, and up to and beyond the devolution referendum of September 1997," said a statement from the inquiry.

First to give evidence when Lord Fraser begins taking public evidence on Tuesday in the Edinburgh offices of the Scottish Land Court will be Mr Galbraith.

Looking from the witness chair in the inquiry room

The former neurosurgeon was a Scottish Office health minister who was one of Donald Dewar's most experienced colleagues.

He will be followed by Brian Wilson, who was a minister of state at the Scottish Office for a year after the election before going on to the Department of Trade and Industry.

Mr McLeish will be the first witness to take the stand on Wednesday.

For the two years between the 1997 Westminster General Election and the first Holyrood election, he was the minister responsible for devolution.

Piloted the legislation

He went on to become an executive minister and, after the death of Donald Dewar, first minister.

He will be followed on Wednesday by Lord Elder and Ms Alexander, two of Donald Dewar's brightest lieutenants.

On Thursday, Labour peer Lord Sewel, who piloted the devolution legislation through the Lords, will give evidence.

It is after him that the "Sewel motion" - the procedural mechanism whereby Westminster can legislate on Scottish matters with Holyrood approval - took its name.

He will be followed by three senior civil servants, Alistair Brown, John Graham and Mark Batho.