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Court refurbishment
21/02/2008
The Scottish Court Service today announced the appointment of Interserve to deliver the first of three phases of a £63 million pound programme to refurbish the historic Parliament House building, home to the Court of Session, in Edinburgh.
Interserve will undertake a package of maintenance and improvement work to the value of £12.3 million which will see the replacement and upgrading of essential services to the building including electrical wiring, water pipes, heating, cooling and ventilation systems, fire systems and lifts.
The works also include the modernisation of two of the twelve civil courtrooms to include the upgrading of IT facilities and new judicial chambers.
In further phases of the project, the majority of the other courtrooms will be modernised with improvements to security, building links, jury and witness facilities, judicial chambers and office accommodation.
Phase 1 work will get underway on Monday, February 25 and be complete by October 2009.
Scottish Court Service Chief Executive Eleanor Emberson said:
"Parliament House is both a working court building and an important part of Scotland's heritage.
"This redevelopment will equip the building to deal with the modern requirements of civil court business and assure its future within this World heritage site.
"Committing to the work in phases allows us to incorporate any future changes which may result from the current review of Civil Courts within the project. " Parliament House will continue to operate during the completion of the works and there will be some inconvenience experienced by court users.
Eleanor Emberson continued:
"We are doing everything possible with the contractors to keep this disruption to a minimum. As far as is possible significant work will be done outwith court times."
The overall project, involving all three phases, will take six years to complete.
This contract has been awarded to Interserve following full EU competition launched in June 2007 which identified Interserve as the preferred bidder. Prices quoted exclude VAT.
Parliament House is a collection of buildings on one site ranging over six floors. The oldest building - Parliament Hall- is approaching 400 years old and is on record as dealing with civil cases in the 1700s. Some of the courtrooms are listed.
An earlier project to redevelop Parliament House announced in 1999 was put on hold after the completion of an initial phase which delivered new library accommodation and a limited upgrading of judges chambers. Ministers announced a review in December 2004 because it was feared the programme could take up to 14 years to complete and that costs could rise to £200 million.
The new contract reduces the scope of the redevelopment and delivers in three separate phases. These measures reduce the overall costs and timescales substantially. Criminal appeal business was transferred to the Lawnmarket, Edinburgh (February 2007) as a temporary measure.