By Steve Bargeton, political editor

MINISTERS MAY have to delay the Scottish budget because of the inquiry into the Holyrood project fiasco.

The Executive planned to reveal how it intends to spend some £75 billion over the next three years either next week or the week after. But Lord Fraser’s announcement that he will publish his report into how the Holyrood project came to be 10 times over budget and three years late next Wednesday has put a spanner in the works.

It is expected some of his conclusions will be damning and will lead to calls for a full debate in Parliament.

At yesterday’s cabinet meeting, ministers were updated by finance minister Andy Kerr on the progress of the budget that involves expenditure of around £25 billion next year alone.

Later the Executive acknowledged the Fraser report could delay publication of the budget. “Legitimate calls for a debate on Fraser could put things back a bit,” said a spokesman. He said the budget was normally published around mid-September, but this could be pushed back to later in the month, depending on what Parliament decides.

Next week’s publication of the Fraser report follows a six-month inquiry by the former Lord Advocate into the spiralling costs and delays to the Holyrood complex that opened this week.