THE Minister for constitutional affairs, Henry McLeish, last night dismissed as a ''storm in a teacup'' speculation about salary levels for Members of the Scottish Parliament and said the cross-party steering group had barely discussed it, writes Robbie Dinwoodie, Scottish Political Correspondent.

Instead, he said, they had continued the business of agreeing how the new Parliament will operate and agreed to commission further public consultation and academic research to ensure they get it right.

''Out of a meeting lasting nearly three hours we discussed this matter for 10 minutes,'' said Mr McLeish about MSPs' pay. The Senior Salaries Review Body would look at the issue, but after embracing proportional representation he did not think they would want a two-tier structure of members.

On whether Holyrood pay scales should match Westminster, he said: ''At the end of the day there is no substantial reason why there should be differences, but it's important that you don't have MSPs voting on their own pay and conditions.''

A number of new initiatives emerged last night:

q A series of 10 seminars will be convened around Scotland, half by the Scottish Consumer Council and half by the Rural Forum to gauge grass-roots views;

q Leading academics and organisations are being shortlisted to carry out research on single-chamber Parliaments elsewhere in the world and issues such as the use of new technology and links between Edinburgh, Cardiff and London;

q The intention is to have a full-scale Hansard-style record of proceedings;

q Recognition that more work is required on the need for pre-legislative scrutiny, and the timetabling of the Parliament's business.