The Scottish Natural Heritage relocation proved controversial

The all-party committee launched an inquiry after ministers announced plans to move Scottish Natural Heritage staff to Inverness.

MSPs said the planned move of the SNH headquarters from Edinburgh was extremely difficult to understand.

The committee said the switch may threaten the agency's effectiveness.

'Difficult to understand'

The proposed �22m transfer has proved controversial, with the 270 workers said to oppose the move.

The proposal came in for strong criticism in the committee's report.

Members said it was "extremely difficult to understand" the executive's rationale.

They said it was a major upheaval for significant numbers of staff and warned that it could threaten the operational effectiveness of the agency.

Eddie Reilly, Scottish secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, which represents 13,000 employees of the executive and devolved public agencies in Scotland, welcomed a ministerial review of relocation policy.

'Political expediency'

He said: "I hope now the hard lessons from the SNH relocation can be learned for the future and that proper weight will now be given to future relocations on socio-economic grounds rather than political expediency."

But Mr Reilly warned the union would not support relocation that leads to redundancies.

The finance committee said all agencies, departments and public bodies should now be looked at to check the viability of relocation.

However, an independent central unit should be set up to decide whether or not it happens and ministers should explain their decisions.