Holyrood security staff face four knife incidents every day

SECURITY staff foil four attempts to smuggle knives into the Scottish parliament each day, new figures have revealed.

More than 6,000 blades have been taken from visitors since the start of 2013, including 112 in the past month.

The number of potentially lethal weapons emerged only weeks after Scottish parliament chiefs launched a review of security in the wake of the terrorist attack at Westminster last month, during which six people lost their lives.

Figures published by the Scottish parliament show 8,752 items were confiscated by security staff from people passing through the airport-style security scanners at Holyrood’s main entrance.

More than seven out of ten of the banned items were knives, a further 15 per cent were scissors or other sharp objects and the rest included harmless items such as horns, whistles and banners.

Scottish Tory community safety spokesman Oliver Mundell said: ‘People will be shocked that security staff at Holyrood have to make this many interventions.

‘It’s fairly obvious knives and other weapons can’t be allowed into a parliament building. Given the heightened security situation following the Westminster attack, we should all be grateful to the security staff at the Scottish parliament and the job they do to keep workers and visitors safe.’

The figures show that the number of items seized by Holyrood’s security officials peaked in 2015, when 2,306 were confiscated from visitors.

In the first three months of this year, guards stopped 227 knives being taken into the parliament.

All of the 300,000 members of the public who visit Holyrood every year must pass through a metal detector and have their belongings checked.

In the wake of the Westminster terror attack, Holyrood’s resilience committee convened to discuss potential upgrades to security in and around the Scottish parliament.

In the days following the outrage, police officers armed with Taser electro-shock weapons were seen patrolling the grounds.

A memo circulated to Scottish parliament staff following the attack read: ‘Police Scotland has assured us that the move is an operational contingency measure and is not based on any intelligence threat in relation to the parliament or Scotland.

‘Following on from the Westminster attack, Police Scotland will undertake a review of its security arrangements at Holyrood.’

The parliament is already ringed by bollards, most of which were installed after the last big security upgrade a decade ago. They were put in place after the parliament was found to be vulnerable to an attack from terrorists driving a vehicle straight at it.

More recently, the public entrance was moved from its initial position under key parts of the building, including the debating chamber, to a new hall away from critical areas.

A Scottish parliament spokesman said: ‘For the safety of all, the parliament does not allow visitors to carry certain sharp objects such as pen-knives or scissors while they are in the building, even if it is perfectly legal to do so in public. Our safety first approach is similar to that operated at Scottish and UK airports.

‘While we don’t comment on specific aspects, we are never complacent about our security measures and keep them under constant review, as was the case following Westminster’s tragic events.’