A third of MSPs and more than half of their staff have yet to take part in training to tackle a culture of sexual harassment at the Scottish Parliament.

The Culture of Respect training was brought in by Holyrood chiefs at the end of October 2018, after a survey found one in five people working at the government headquarters had experienced some form of sexual harassment or sexist behaviour.

The abuse included sexist comments, leering, unwanted physical contact and sexually explicit questions by colleagues.

However three months into the sessions, 43 (33%) of Holyrood’s 129 MSPs have yet to sign up to attend and 61% of their staff haven’t either.

Almost 900 people have so far taken part in the sessions, including nearly all of the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body’s 450 employees.

Those who have taken part have given mixed reviews when asked by the Herald on Sunday, with some attendees reporting that the training didn’t do enough to tackle serious issues and help people understand what to do in situations of extreme harassment or misconduct.

The sessions, run by external firm CMP Solutions, aimed to cover the law and what sexual harassment is, how to deal with behaviour if you have experienced or witnessed it, and the impact of inappropriate behaviour.

Staff were put into groups to discuss various scenarios, understood to include what to do if your boss asks you to adjust his tie, and what to do if your colleague gives you a hug.

Another scenario included what to do if a colleague refers to someone as ‘gay’ if they reveal they don’t like football.

One woman who works at Holyrood, said: “The example scenarios didn’t feel like an accurate reflection of what it can be like to work in Parliament and the whole session seemed more like a guide for handing out coping mechanisms, rather than calling out the perpetrators of bad behaviour.

“It’s never easy to report harassment or bullying, for anyone, but the training sessions didn’t really seem to grasp the reality of the particularly difficult position staff can find themselves in if it’s an MSP carrying out unacceptable behaviour.

“If you’re directly employed by the person harassing you, where do you turn in that situation?

“I don’t doubt that there are good intentions behind the work the Parliament is trying to carry out, but there’s a lot more work to be done and consultation to be had with staff if the new policies are to make a real difference.”

A man who also works at the parliament said he felt the training was worthwhile, but said: “There are serious incidents which have happened at parliament or between Holyrood staff and maybe some of them we don’t yet know about.

“So to take part in training that’s just about off-the-cuff remarks or interactions that could be misconstrued didn’t really do much to address the issue of serious predators or if someone is going out of their way to try and harass people.

“I do think it was interesting though, and it starts off the conversation about where we go from here.”

A Scottish Parliament spokesman said that there were other forms of advice available for anyone in need of help, along with the Culture of Respect training. These include the sexual harassment hotline and external charities such as Rape Crisis and Stonewall.

He added: “We’ve received 886 feedback forms from the training, and 91% of people say they agree, or strongly agree that they were satisfied with the workshop.”

The sessions will be running at Holyrood until next month.