THE Scottish Parliament Debating Chamber has been temporarily shifted to a new venue due to a broken roof beam at Holyrood.

On the 2nd March a timber strut component of the Debating Chamber roof swung out of position as one of the connecting bolts broke. This left a huge 12 foot oak strut dangling dangerously above the heads of the Scottish Conservative MPs.

An official statement from The Parliament reads:

"Failure occurred in the connection of the timber strut to the stainless steel shoe and this has been and continues to be the subject of an on-going review."

It seems likely that the Parliament Debating Chamber will be closed for several weeks while the joints of all the struts in the roof are checked, much to the embarrassment and anger of those involved, ie the MPs, the engineers, the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body, and the Scottish people.

Click on a thumbnail below to open a Fullscreen Panorama of the Debating Chamber (prior to this componant failure), and see the complexity and design of this elaborate structure.