MSPs rejected an amendment to limit the commission's spending

The Scottish Commissioner for Human Rights Bill has been criticised as expensive and unnecessary since it was first introduced.

The watchdog will scrutinise human rights issues arising from devolved policy areas such as health, education and the criminal law.

A panel rather than an individual commissioner will be appointed.

Ministers had failed to win support from the justice 1 committee when it issued its stage one report on the bill in February after the idea was branded "a piece of nonsense" by a former High Court judge.

Nobody is questioning the independence of the commissioners, but equally nobody gets a blank cheque to allow them to do what they want John Swinney SNP

Lord McCluskey questioned the need for a �75,000 "gadfly" to tell public bodies how to meet their legal obligations under the Human Rights Act.

MSPs agreed by 74 votes to 41 to a heavily amended version of the bill that no longer creates an individual commissioner.

A separate body with one chairperson and four other members, all of whom can be either full or part-time, will now be set up.

Deputy Education Minister Robert Brown said the watchdog, which will cost around �1m per year, will be flexible and accountable to parliament.

He also said co-location with the UK Human Rights Commissioner would be fully investigated.

But the bill was heavily criticised by both the Conservatives and the SNP, who questioned the cost of, and need for, a separate body.

'Unnecessary duplication'

Conservative justice spokeswoman Margaret Mitchell put forward amendments calling for the work to be carried out by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman.

"I believe there would be an avoidance of unnecessary duplication and overlap," she said.

"There would also be a readily understood one-stop shop which the public could readily access and use for taking on any of their concerns about human rights."

She said it would compliment the role of the ombudsman and would save money.

An amendment to give the parliament's corporate body power to limit the new commission's spending was rejected by MSPs.

Mr Brown said the commission would be flexible

It came after recent concerns about the escalating costs of Scotland's commissioners and ombudsmen.

The SNP's John Swinney said the corporate body had tried to exercise "legitimate financial constraints" on the activities of ombudsmen and Holyrood's finance committee had expressed similar reservations.

"Both bodies have been put in a position of effectively being accused of questioning and jeopardising the independence of the commissioners," he said.

"Nobody is questioning the independence of the commissioners, but equally nobody gets a blank cheque to allow them to do what they want."

The minister said the amendment was not necessary to allow the parliament's corporate body to oversee the spending of the commission.

During a later debate, Mr Stevenson said the bill would not be getting his party's support because it did not cover private companies.