BBC: Facing tape demand

Lord Fraser has written to the BBC's acting chairman with a renewed demand for tapes which contain evidence about the Holyrood building fiasco.

The corporation has repeatedly refused to hand over the tapes ahead of the scheduled broadcast date - claiming doing so would breach ethical and editorial rules.

Lord Fraser, however, believes they contain potentially important evidence relevant to his inquiry into the spiralling costs of the Holyrood building.

Angered at what he sees as BBC Scotland's intransigence, the peer has written to the corporation's acting governor, Lord Ryder, "in a further attempt to gain access to a potential source of evidence for the inquiry".

Following the high level resignations in the wake of the Hutton inquiry, Lord Fraser is said to hope the BBC will adopt a more cooperative attitude following a stalemate.

The tapes contain interviews with former first minister Donald Dewar and the Holyrood architect Enric Mirrales.

They were made by the independent production company Wark Clements which is partly owned by Newsnight presenter and member of the Holyrood steering committee Kirsty Wark.