One MSP called for windows to be bricked up to cut costs

The authorities in charge of the project told the parliament's finance committee that they expect the cost of bomb-proofing the windows and glass ceiling to amount to �100m.

Fergus Ewing, of the SNP, had asked the committee which runs the parliament if media reports speculating on the cost of security measures were factual.

Robert Brown, committee spokesman, confirmed that reported estimates of �100m for security were not "a million miles wide of the mark."

The terrorist events of 11 September, 2001, were partly blamed for the cost with much stricter security measures needed.

I'm surprised that no-one associated with this project seems to be living in the real world John Swinburne

Project director Sarah Davidson revealed that each of the one-off window designs on the building now had to be bomb-tested to destruction, which had led to delays and these in turn had added to the costs.

The revelation led John Swinburne, MSP for the Senior Citizens' Unity Party, to call for some of the windows to be bricked up in an attempt to cut costs.

He said: "I'm surprised that no-one associated with this project seems to be living in the real world.

"If you do not have enough money in your purse you cut your cloth accordingly.

"I mean why not brick up windows instead of costing hundreds of millions of pounds?

"It might not be aesthetically beautiful, but it is totally sufficient for the small number of MSPs who attend the debates."

'Worst case scenario'

Mr Ewing, the SNP's finance spokesman, said officials would have known of the need for security and bomb-proofing measures when the project began at the end of the 1990s, given previous incidents such as the 1984 bombing of the Conservative party conference in Brighton.

"Surely right from the start the security services, coupled with the Labour government and the civil servants working for them, should have established what the security requirements are," he said.

Conservative committee member Ted Brocklebank added: "For the last 30 years we've had experience of terrorism in these islands, Westminster has been mortared in that time, so it's not as if that threat wasn't understood long before 11 September.

The Holyrood building is due to be completed next July

"I find it extremely difficult to understand how it is that such massive costs, these ongoing costs, these increasing costs, could have resulted, particularly with the kind of experience we have had with terrorism in the UK."

The row over security costs came a day after Holyrood bosses revealed the running estimate for the troubled new building had broken through the �400m barrier.

Presiding Officer George Reid said on Monday that the latest official estimate was �389.4m, plus �11.8m earmarked for "possible disruption".

Parliament chief executive Paul Grice told Finance Committee member Elaine Murray he could not offer a "worst case scenario" on the cost of the complex.