A north-east Tory MSP today denied using artificial intelligence to submit close to 1,000 parliamentary questions at a potential cost to taxpayers of £100,000 – but has yet to confirm if anyone on his team did.

Douglas Lumsden was accused of a “flagrant abuse of taxpayers’ money” after tabling questions on topics including the height of flagpoles, parliamentary light bulbs and the profit margins of jars of honey sold in the parliament shop.

Critics have suggested he could only have put in so many queries with the help of artificial intelligence – a claim which Mr Lumsden denied when asked on Sunday.

In January, he lodged 987 written questions to officials, more than half of the total asked by all 129 Scottish MSPs, The Sunday Times revealed.

Written questions are a way of obtaining information for constituents on the government and parliament but they come at a cost.

Based on a previous estimate from 2008 of the £98.51 average cost to provide each answer, the bill for replying to him could be as high as more than £97,000.

However, the cost of responding to parliamentary questions is likely to have risen in that timeframe.

Tory MSP denies using AI to lodge questions

Mr Lumsden said he would speak to his team about the volume of questions and whether a written question is needed in every instance.

He told the P&J he had not used AI to submit questions but “would look at any new tools to hold the government to account”.

The north-east MSP has yet to confirm whether any of his staff made use of such programmes to submit questions on his behalf.

Mr Lumsden pointed to other examples of questions he has submitted to Holyrood which have uncovered A96 crash statistics, road repair costs and the lack of forensic pathologists in the north-east to probe sudden deaths.

The Tory MSP added: “It’s worth remembering that Monica Lennon and Jackie Baillie have both asked more questions than me this term.

“I will continue to hold this rotten government to account and won’t be silenced when it comes to standing up for the north-east.”

The two Labour MSPs have each tabled more questions than Mr Lumsden when compared across the entire parliamentary term starting in 2021.

However, almost 1,000 of Mr Lumsden’s queries were submitted last month alone.

Marra: ‘Flagrant abuse of taxpayers’ money’

Michael Marra, Labour’s finance spokesman, said it is a “flagrant abuse of taxpayers’ money” and described the questions as “spurious”.

He added: “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 with the job of representing their constituents.”

Mr Lumsden has asked seven questions about flags since the start of the year, including the height of any flagpoles the parliament owns.

There were also queries around the parliament’s bees and the average loss/profit per jar sold in the Holyrood shop, as well as how much parliament pays on average for sauce and salt sachets used in its canteen.

Mr Lumsden, 53, previously worked in IT before being elected to Aberdeen City Council in 2017.

He served as co-leader of the council from 2017 until 2021 when he was elected to Holyrood as a list MSP.

The Tory MSP remained as a councillor, saying he wanted to avoid the expense of a by-election. He later stood down from the local authority at the 2022 council elections.

He is currently the party’s spokesman on net zero, energy and transport.

A Scottish Parliament spokesman said: “As with advice to any member, we wouldn’t comment upon or confirm whether officials offered advice.”