Police haven’t solved a single crime committed inside the Scottish Parliament for the second year running.
Almost all of the offences reported to Police Scotland involved the theft of valuables from offices, cabinets and desks, which in most of the cases had been left unlocked and unattended.
One of the crimes, the theft of an iPad and its case, wasn’t reported to them for two years a delay that may minimise the chance of the culprit ever being caught.
The surprising facts have come to light as a result of Freedom of Information requests by The Courier to Police Scotland.
The Holyrood building in Edinburgh is the daily workplace of 127 MSPs plus several hundred office staff, ancillary workers and journalists. It also attracts around 400,000 visitors a year.
It is the place where many of Scotland’s laws are made but it has been shown to be a happy hunting ground for lawbreakers.
In 2013 a total of 15 offences committed in the building were reported to the police for investigation. They included the theft of cash sums as high as £56.50, a mobile phone and footwear.
Most bizarre was the crime said to have taken place in 2013 between March 21 and 23 the theft from an unattended desk of “large blue box of Fox’s biscuits, unopened.” Like the other 14 offences committed in the Parliament that year it was marked down as “unsolved”.
There was no repeat of such an unusual offence among the 13 reported to the police in 2014 but all of them remain “undetected”.
Almost all involved stealing valuables from settings described most commonly as “insecure and unattended”. Items stolen included cash sums, a camera, keys, an iPhone and accessories.
An exception was the sum of £100 stolen between June 23 and 24 last year by someone opening a secure drawer with the true key.
A figurine vanished from a complainer’s desk between December 12 and 15 perhaps a temptation for someone looking for a Christmas gift?
But why would someone have opened a locked drawer between May 12 and 13 to steal 12 pens and four keys?
One wonders at the response of the police officer who, on February 27 this year, received a report of an iPad with its case that had disappeared from an insecure room sometime over the two previous years.
A spokesman for Police Scotland said: “All reports of crime at the Scottish Parliament are investigated thoroughly by our officers based within the building. Any offences which are detected are reported to the procurator fiscal.”
Asked about security precautions inside the building, the spokesman said the police supply security advice to politicians and staff at Holyrood.
A Scottish Parliament spokesman said: “The parliament is a public building that attracts around 400,000 visitors a year. Any criminal activity around the Parliament is a matter for the police unit at Holyrood or Police Scotland to investigate.”
A spokesman for TaxpayerScotland, the taxpayers’ advocacy group, said: “Spending on security at the Parliament building has rocketed in the past few years. Clearly our tax money has gone into high-profile anti-disturbance and security systems rather than down-to-earth boilerplate policing.
“It’s usually the latter that saves money and benefits everyone in their day-to-day work. Anti-terrorist patrols are no doubt necessary but we must keep our Parliament clean of petty theft.”
The Parliament operates an airport-style scan and frisk system on visitors.
Some £35,000 has already been spent on stab-proof vests for staff, which they started wearing in 2011 amid reports that they could be vulnerable to attack.
In 2013 a £6.5m security extension was opened. The new entrance offers more space for screening and a baggage drop and bosses said it was given the go-ahead after security advice.