Bermuda's 191-year-old Sessions House needs large-scale repair work that means Parliament will have to move to another location.

Works and Engineering Minister David Burch said the project to fix the structure of the building and its plumbing and electric systems will be "a mammoth task," and could take a number of years to complete.

He told of the project in a statement to the Senate yesterday.

He explained that the deterioration in the building, which was built in 1815 and houses the House of Assembly and Supreme Courts One and Two, was discovered during recent work on disabled access.

"An initial and cursory inspection by technical officers indicates a need for a detailed structural assessment, which the Ministry is organising," he said.

"The building is starting to show its age and work has been done without a comprehensive plan to upgrade the building. An assessment of all work needed to be done to bring the building up to to code will be commissioned. This is likely to be a large project with significant costs and a potential multi-year project that will also require the building to be vacated." He said he would outline his concerns to the Cabinet in the near future and agree a way forward.

Speaking to The Royal Gazette after his statement, the Minister said the Sessions House is not dangerous and a date for the project to begin has not yet been set.

He said it was too early to put a figure on how much the repairs will cost, but that they would involve all the plumbing and electrical systems being taken out. No alternative venue for Parliament has yet been earmarked.

The House of Assembly originally met in 1620 in St. Peter's Church in the original capital, St. George's. It later moved to the State House in that town, before the capital was moved to Hamilton in 1815.