MSPs could be reported to police by Scottish Parliament authorities if sexual harassment allegations are made in a staff survey or in calls to a new helpline.

Presiding Officer Ken Macintosh, the parliament’s elected figurehead, moved swiftly to set up a telephone helpline and launch a confidential survey of everyone who works at Holyrood in the wake of claims that women have been subjected to a catalogue of abuse.

Speaking exclusively to the Sunday Herald, Macintosh warned there is a “legal duty” to inform police of criminality and pledged to reveal how many calls and survey responses are received, as well as a breakdown of the type of complaints.

He also moved to reassure victims of sexual harassment that their anonymity would be maintained and information anonymised to ensure they can’t be identified by perpetrators if they speak out.

The Sunday Herald exclusively revealed last week that human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar had been approached by women who work at Holyrood who had made claims about “a catalogue of sexual harassment, stalking, social media abuse, sexual innuendos, verbal sexual abuse, touching, sexual assaults, requests for sex, cover up, isolation and bullying”.

After the revelations the SNP said the party is investigating two separate complaints of inappropriate behaviour. It was also reported that three male MSPs have been accused of “creepy” behaviour towards women. Their identities were the subject of speculation at Holyrood this week, but they have yet to be named publicly by accusers.

Macintosh said he is not aware of “criminal activity” and stopped short of describing last week’s revelations as a crisis for the parliament but conceded it is a “very serious issue”.

He said: “The purpose of this helpline is to make anybody in this building feel safe to come forward and discuss what’s happened to them. I would hope they would have other routes to do so but it’s a further confirmation that there are ways that you can discuss sexual harassment.

“Some people will just want to discuss it and won’t want to take it any further but others, for example a case involving a crime, will [want to] because it’s a spectrum of behaviour from lewd remarks to potentially criminal behaviour.”

Macintosh said if victims identified perpetrators of sexual harassment “we would have a legal duty” to contact police.

He said: “I think the key thing is the helpline is there to provide reassurance. At the moment there are no allegations, no cases, no ongoing investigations. What there is is concern.

“We hope that the survey will bottom that out, so we’ll be able to find out what kind of environment this actually is, what has happened, recently or historically, on the spectrum, and how serious it is, would [victims] want action, have they spoken about it and been ignored. We want to get to the root of these things.”

Macintosh said parliamentary authorities will eventually reveal how many people called the helpline, how many survey responses they received, what was raised and what action was taken. “The individual would be anonymous, and the information will be anonymised,” he added.

He also offered reassurances to staff employed by MSPs that they can access support from the parliament’s human resources department and complain to the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body about breaches of the code of conduct if they are bullied or harassed. MSPs are given an annual budget to pay staff and have complete control over who they hire and fire, with no interference from parliamentary authorities.

Macintosh said: “There’s certainly an issue because the way the MSPs and their staff are employed is quite unique. If that structure got in the way we’d need to clarify it.”

The Presiding Officer has asked MSPs on Holyrood’s standards committee to review the wording of the code of conduct to ensure staff employed by MSPs are clear about the “lines of accountability”.

He said: “Members’ staff are employed by the member so they’re at arms’ length from the parliament. One of the reasons we’re referring it to the SPPA (Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments) committee is to clarify that a member of an MSP’s staff can use the code of conduct. It’s already the case that they can but we think the wording could be clarified.

“That’s the very thing I discussed with convenor Clare Adamson (MSP) and she agreed, as did the party leaders. We want to give people the comfort that this is one of the avenues [to report harassment]. Each of the parties have their own systems but on top of that you might have your trade union and you’ve also got this. You’ve also got access to parliamentary HR staff.”