BT telecoms contract to be examined by Scottish parliament

Questions are set to be asked of Registers of Scotland (RoS) as Holyrood attempts to discover how a BT communications contract doubled in price before being cancelled early.

RoS, which has been tasked with collecting Scotland's stamp duty from 2015, paid BT £112 million to update its IT systems and provide ICT services, despite the cost of the contract originally being estimated at £66 million.

The agreement was then cancelled 20 months before it was due to end, resulting in the write-off of £6.7 million of taxpayers' money.

According to the Press Association, the Scottish parliament's Public Audit Committee will investigate the matter, with keeper of the RoS Sheenagh Adams and deputy keeper and accountable officer Catriona Hardman set to appear before the body.

The matter was described as "worrying" by convener Iain Gray, who expressed particular concern over the issue in light of the decision to give RoS responsibility for stamp duty collection.

"Our committee will want to hear directly from RoS that it has learned the lessons from its contract with BT so that its ICT systems will be ready, on time, to start collecting stamp duty tax," he explained.