Scottish Parliament to offer live webcasts

The Scottish Parliament is looking to provide live webcasting of all Parliamentary business from its controversial new building in Edinburgh.

The glass and steel Holyrood building opened yesterday at a cost of £430m - some three years late and 10 times over budget - amid much criticism.

Now the Parliament wants to broadcast all its sessions live on the internet. A contract notice has just been put out by the procurement arm of the Scottish Parliament.

The contract will require a supplier to provide live webcasting of all Parliamentary business, the archiving of that material, the provision of interactive forum software tools and an online register of users.

On top of the controversy over the cost of the new building, the Scottish Parliament website has become involved in an embarrassing porn blunder.

While visitors to www.scottish.parliament.uk will be able to view various political debates, anyone going to www.thescottishparliament.com will encounter mass debates of an entirely different kind. A Finnish company holds the domain and has instead filled the site with porn.