MARK McDonald faces being banned from the Holyrood building and having his salary docked after MSPs are to order the public standards watchdog to investigate the shamed former childcare minister minister’s conduct.

The SNP’s James Dornan lodged a formal complaint with the Scottish Parliament’s Standards Committee over his former party colleague’s return to parliament this week.

Its convener Clare Haughey yesterday said her committee had agreed “to issue a direction to the Ethical Standards Commissioner to conduct an investigation into this complaint”.

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If the complaint is upheld it is for Parliament to decide, with a recommendation from the Standards Committee, what consequences there should be for the MSP.

According to the Commissioner’s website, parliament “can prevent or restrict a Member from taking part in its proceedings for a period of time” and “in certain circumstances a member can be totally excluded for a time”.

It adds: “Parliament can also withdraw a Member’s rights and privileges including right of access as a Member to Parliamentary facilities, services and buildings”. Guidance on the Holyrood Code of Conduct also states “withdrawal of a member’s allowance or salary or any part of an allowance or salary” is a further penalty.

McDonald quit his ministerial role last year and the SNP last week after admitting inappropriate behaviour towards women. He returned to Holyrood on Tuesday as an Independent MSP.

In his written complaint to the committee, Dornan said McDonald’s presence would be a “clear negation” of the duty of care the Scottish Parliament has to its staff. Dornan claimed he escorted a parliamentary staff member to a car outside Holyrood as she was “sure McDonald was waiting for her”.

He added: “As we left the building he was standing close to the exit, and I have no doubt he was indeed waiting for her.” He said the woman later became “so unwell with stress” she had a stroke, a situation he claimed was “compounded” by McDonald, who denies both allegations.

The committee considering the complaint in private yesterday before Haughey announced the decision to have the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life investigate.

She said: “The Committee is currently conducting an inquiry into whether the MSP Code of Conduct is fit for purpose when dealing with complaints about sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct. There is still some way to go with our inquiry, but there appears to be an early consensus a more robust process is required ... And any new process will also have to try to reconcile openness and transparency, with privacy and a duty of care towards potentially vulnerable people.”

McDonald asked to be given a second chance when he returned to Holyrood saying he did not intend to “antagonise or upset” anyone. An internal SNP investigation into allegations from three women identified “persistent” behaviour including inappropriate and unwanted text messages, unwanted attention and exploiting his position of power. He resigned as minister when the first allegation emerged and faced calls to resign his seat from the First Minister and other senior SNP figures last week.