A TORY MSP has cost £100,000 of public money after tabling almost 1000 parliamentary questions in one month.
MSP for North of East Scotland Douglas Lumsden was criticised by opposition parties after submitting queries on flagpoles, light bulbs and jars of honey in the Holyrood shop, according to the Sunday Times.
The SNP said "serious questions have to be asked".
Written questions are used by MSPs to obtain information on Government and parliament for the public, but representatives are asked to exercise caution with the amount.
In January, Lumsden submitted 987 written questions to officials.
The amount is more than half of the total asked by all 129 MSPs.
He also asked about the cost of electric hand dryers on the parliamentary estate.
Lumsden defended his actions, but said he will review the amount asked alongside members of his team.
The MSP said: “It’s legitimate to submit questions to scrutinise the SNP government and Scottish parliament, but I will speak with my team about the volume and if a written question is needed in every instance.”
A SNP source said: “While it is the duty of all MSPs to hold the government and parliament to account, serious questions have to be asked about the volume of questions asked in such a short period of time.
"Lodging such an excessive number of questions shows that Lumsden has scant regard for the work involved for parliamentary staff and also for taxpayers’ money with which the Tories proclaim to be so frugal."
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.”
