Lord Fraser sees Holyrood tapes

The tapes show interviews with key figures behind the Holyrood project

Lord Fraser has formally closed the Holyrood Inquiry into the building of the new Scottish Parliament, seven months after giving his verdict.

Lord Fraser said he had now seen unbroadcast interviews with Holyrood architect Enric Miralles and the late First Minister Donald Dewar.

The probe was long denied access to the footage which was made as part of the BBC documentary, The Gathering Place.

The 43-day inquiry found there was "no single villain of the piece".

Lord Fraser's comments came in a letter to First Minister Jack McConnell and Holyrood Presiding Officer George Reid.

Controversial documentary

The letter marks the end of a long stand-off between Lord Fraser, the BBC, and documentary makers IWC Ltd, formerly Wark Clements, over the fly-on-the-wall documentary about the construction of the Scottish Parliament building.

The building cost £431m and was delivered three years behind schedule.

When the inquiry findings were published last September, Lord Fraser said he could not formally close the inquiry until he had seen the controversial documentary.

And he voiced "dismay" at the decision by the BBC and Wark Clements to refuse him full access to the tapes so he could be sure the inquiry had left no stone unturned.

I am confident there is nothing new to reveal Lord Fraser

The Gathering Place was screened by BBC Scotland last month, and Lord Fraser disclosed that he and John Campbell QC had seen some but not all of the unbroadcast footage earlier this week in Edinburgh, and had seen nothing "of any consequence" to stop him formally closing the inquiry.

He told Mr McConnell he had seen in their entirety unbroadcast interviews with Donald Dewar and Mr Miralles, but other unbroadcast material continued to be withheld by IWC for "a variety of reasons".

"This is not wholly satisfactory but I do not want to commit extra expense to the public purse and I am confident there is nothing new to reveal," he said.

The inquiry cost just over £1m and took evidence from 60 witnesses.

'Troubled project'

Lord Fraser said he respected the professionalism of the documentary producer and the BBC enough to accept that the series of programmes showed "the most pertinent" material.

But he went on: "It continues to disturb me that that professionalism did not extend to making material available to the inquiry at the correct time in the wider public interest so that it could be privately inspected in advance of the publication of the report.

"I find it inconceivable, however, that filmmakers of this experience would still be withholding material relevant to the inquiry's remit, or that they could be unaware of the possible consequences of so doing."

He added: "I trust that the work of the inquiry and my report have helped to achieve a better understanding of the whole circumstances of this troubled project."