A Tory MSP who cost the taxpayer £100,000 after a blitz of “frivolous” questions has been urged to pay back the money. Douglas Lumsden has been condemned after tabling nearly 1,000 questions in a month.
SNP MSP Kevin Stewart said: “Will Douglas Lumsden apologise and pay back the cost? Or will the taxpayer be left to foot the £100,000 bill for Lumsden’s capers?”
Written questions are a way of obtaining information for the public on the Government, but MSPs exercise caution given the pressure on the public purse.
Lumsden, MSP for North of East Scotland, submitted 987 written questions to officials in January, more than half of the total asked by all 129 MSPs.
Some of the questions were about flagpoles, light bulbs and jars of honey in the Holyrood shop.
Michael Marra, Scottish Labour’s finance spokesman, said: “This a flagrant abuse of taxpayers’ money. Given the content of many of these questions, this is clearly for no purpose other than that the amusement of the Tory member.
“This sum of money could have paid the wages of two nurses in our NHS for an entire year. Instead the Tories are happy to waste taxpayers’ cash, the paid time of hard-pressed officials and other MSPs who are trying to get on with the job of representing their constituents.”
He added: “But abusing this system by asking the internet to generate spurious questions is deeply childish and shows a concerning lack of judgment.”
Other questions submitted by the MSP, who backed Liz Truss to be Tory leader, focused on deckchairs and the cost of electric hand dryers on the parliamentary estate.
SNP MSP Kevin Stewart said: “MSPs have a duty to hold the Government and Parliament to account but this incredible volume of questions is a flagrant disregard for the taxpayers’ cash. Costing around £100 a pop as reports suggest Lumsden has cost the Scottish taxpayer £100k to ask nonsense questions about bees, straws and pepper sachets.
“In a cost-of-living crisis voters will rightly be asking what on earth he is up to. The Tory MSP appears to be making a joke of the situation online but it’s actually no laughing matter.”
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