A Scottish Conservative MSP has denied using artificial intelligence to make almost 1,000 parliamentary questions as he faces accusations of wasting £100,000 of taxpayers’ money.
Douglas Lumsden has been urged to apologise and pay back the cost of the 987 queries submitted in January.
The questions included demanding to know the number of sauce and salt and pepper sachets at Holyrood, and how many straws the Scottish government had procured in the last 10 years.
The SNP said other questions lodged included how many Scottish parliament flags had gone missing over the past decade, the number of flagpoles owned and their height.
The MSP for North East Scotland also queried the average profit or loss on jars of honey sold in the Holyrood shop, as well as how it is verified that the beeswax used for the Great Seal of Scotland comes from the parliament’s bees.
Written questions are a way of obtaining information for the public and scrutinising the work of both the government and parliament.
Scottish government officials say the most recent exercise to estimate the price of answering a parliamentary question was conducted in 2008 and reported the cost to be £98.51.
That is now likely to be substantially higher.
Mr Lumsden denied using AI but said he would “look at any new tools to hold the government to account”.
He added: “So far these questions have discovered that there has been no growth of surgical training posts in the last 10 years, no forensic pathologists based in Aberdeen, and the incident statistics on the A96.
“They have also discovered the number of repairs at the Toll of Birness, the cost of the overseas embassies, the number of signs and streetlights being replaced each year on the A90, the cost of Scottish government electricity over five years, and the fleet size and value, and number of Teslas owned by the Scottish government.”
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The politician noted that Scottish Labour MSPs Monica Lennon and Jackie Baillie had both asked more questions than him this parliamentary term.
Mr Lumsden added: “I will continue to ask questions to hold this rotten government to account and won’t be silenced when it comes to standing up for the northeast.”
Scottish Labour did not wish to comment on Mr Lumsden’s statement.
Meanwhile, SNP MSP Kevin Stewart branded Mr Lumsden’s questions “frivolous” and suggested he should apologise and refund the cost of his queries.
Mr Stewart added: “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.
“In a cost of living crisis voters will rightly be asking what on earth he is up to.”
