The first parliamentary staff are set to move into the Holyrood building

The Holyrood site received its formal safety certificates on Sunday night and by the end of Monday 170 parliamentary staff will be in their new offices.

Most of the building is now covered by the necessary certificates and it is hoped it will be fully staffed by the end of the month.

It is hoped 375 of the Scottish Parliament's near 1,000-strong workforce will have moved into the new building by the end of the week.

Behind the scenes Presiding Officer George Reid has been driving the project extremely hard and is determined to avoid further delays in the opening of the parliament at the foot of Edinburgh's Royal Mile.

We have Lord Fraser who will decide responsibility and report at the end of the month but then we should get back to what we are good at George Reid Presiding Officer

Mr Reid, who will move into the new building on Wednesday, said: "We're moving in as planned.

"This is Scotland's biggest flitting. Almost 1,000 people will be accommodated in the new campus by the beginning of September.

"As I said before, once we are in, we can then get on."

'Procurement failure'

He told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme: "I don't want to get back to the past, I want to get on to the future.

"This has been a major failure in public procurement in Scotland.

"We have Lord Fraser who will decide responsibility and report at the end of the month but then we should get back to what we are good at.

"We are not good at building. MSPs are not experts on that, but building a better government, a more compassionate and a more enterprising Scotland and that is the challenge that faces us in the new chamber."

Holyrood chief executive Paul Grice and his staff, the presiding officer's private office staff and external liaison staff would now move into Queensberry House on the site.

Mock debates

Official report staff will set up base in tower three, facilities and management workers will move into the basement while IT staff will relocate to the Canongate Building.

Security staff will also take up their posts in the new facility.

Staff will hold mock debates in the new chamber before MSPs return from their summer recess and move in permanently in September.

The Queen is due to officially open the new building on 9 October.

Scotland's politicians left their temporary home at The Mound in Edinburgh on 1 July after spending more than five years there.