Crumbling UK Parliament Building At Risk Of Being Destroyed, Lawmakers Warn

A parliamentary committee warned the British government on Wednesday that if the Palace of Westminster's restoration project is delayed, a catastrophic disaster might cause the 147-year-old complex to collapse and be destroyed.

The Palace of Westminster houses the British Parliament, which is an architectural masterpiece and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

However, British MPs noted that the structure is also asbestos-filled, leaky, and in "real and rising" danger of being destroyed.

The Public Accounts Committee said in a report that after decades of broad consensus on the critical need to repair and restore the Palace of Westminster, progress has been painfully slow with "years of procrastination" and significant parliamentary decisions being reopened and overturned. The Committee says that, to date, the focus has been on Members of Parliament rather than the thousands of staff and visitors who use the building.

The Committee calls it "incredible" that, five years after the House determined a course of action, questions about what a restored palace might look like and how the work will be undertaken remain unanswered. The timeframe and cost also remain uncertain, except that the cost will be high and that further delays will be hugely costly to the taxpayer.

Parliament is spending up to 2 million pounds (Rs 20,56,92,200) a week patching up the Palace, but there is still a growing list of health and safety incidents, including some involving asbestos.

The Committee says the Clerks of both Houses "finally seem to acknowledge publicly the enormity of this task, for which they are now personally accountable", but it remains unclear how they will manage their legal responsibilities to the programme alongside those to individuals working in and visiting the Palace.