MSP Bill Walker could be stripped of his £58,000-a-year salary as the Scottish Parliament announced a review of its pay scheme after his conviction for domestic violence.
Presiding Officer Tricia Marwick will this week chair a meeting of the parliament's ruling body to discuss denying pay to a jailed MSP.
Walker, 71, the Independent MSP for Dunfermline, was convicted last month of 23 counts of assault against three ex-wives and a step-daughter. He is due to be sentenced on September 20.
As Walker was tried under summary procedure, the maximum sentence he can receive is 12 months - too little to disbar him from Holyrood - and last week he said he would not resign.
Under parliamentary rules, Walker will continue to collect his full salary until the next Holyrood election in 2016, around £155,000, even if he is in jail some of that time.
But the parliament has said it was to look at changing its rules on pay.
Even if Walker receives a non-custodial sentence, parliament insiders say the pay scheme could be altered to punish him regardless. "We're ruling nothing in and ruling nothing out," a senior source said.
Parliament officials have already considered and discounted other proposed solutions to the Walker problem, including a power of recall to sack him and expelling him by using the MSP's Code of Conduct.
The 1998 Scotland Act does give Holyrood the power to "make provision for the payment of salaries" to MSPs, and power to make "different provision ... for different cases" through a simple resolution in parliament.
The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) will discuss the option on Thursday.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie, whose motion calling on Walker to vacate his seat immediately has been signed by more than 85 MSPs, said: "There is a powerful uprising of disgust that Bill Walker plans to remain as a parliamentarian. He should leave."
A parliament spokesman said: "Officials are looking at the issue of the extent to which a member who is serving a custodial sentence should continue to be paid."
An SNP spokesman said: "Bill Walker was convicted of extremely serious offences and is not fit to be a public representative."
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