Stephen Kerr, Central Scotland MSP, submitted 1477 questions to ministers over the last year before the Scottish Parliament went into recess ahead of the election.
Written questions are used by MSPs to obtain information on a variety of issues, but representatives are asked to exercise caution with the amount.
The average cost of answering a written question is £138.07, with each taking an average of three hours and 40 minutes to process.
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Between July 1, 2021 and December 31, 2024, Kerr lodged 839 questions, but managed to almost double the amount lodged with Scottish Government officials between January 1, 2025 and March 2026.
Overall, Kerr lodged 2340 written questions during the last Holyrood term.
It comes after Kerr’s colleague Douglas Lumsden was forced to deny he had used AI for £185,000 of “frivolous” Holyrood questions in February last year.
The MSP for North East Scotland submitted 987 questions in January 2025 alone, more than half of the total asked by all 129 MSPs that month.
Douglas Lumsden was forced to deny using AI (Image: PA)
Kerr did not deny using AI, instead disputing that he asked “daft” questions, as the SNP had suggested he had asked about potato peelers in one instance.
Between March 2025 and March 2026, Kerr submitted on average six questions each working day.
This cost around £203,929 for officials to answer the 1477 queries over the past year.
SNP MSP Kevin Stewart said: “The Tories are always the first to complain about how taxpayers’ money is spent – do they really think that asking about potato peelers is the best use of £200,000 worth of public money?
“Eyebrows will certainly be raised at how it was possible for Stephen Kerr – in a single year – to ask double the number of questions he managed in the previous four years combined – if he is using AI, he should come clean now.
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“Between them, Stephen Kerr and Douglas Lumsden have cost the public purse around £400,000 through this nonsense – they should be explaining to their constituents why they think this is acceptable.
“What is clear is that the public have had enough of Tory MSPs debasing the Scottish Parliament – and on May 7, people can vote SNP to protect Scotland’s parliament and to be rid of these time wasters.”
The SNP said they have requested that the parliamentary authorities review the written question system to enable MSPs to hold the Scottish Government to account while protecting taxpayers against bad-faith actors.
In response to the SNP’s accusations, Kerr said: “For the past five years I have tirelessly held this useless SNP Government to account.
“Whether it be exposing Michael Matheson’s £11,000 iPad bill, raising the issue of school violence or speaking up for whistleblowers.
“I will never apologise for doing my job of holding this rotten SNP Government and their inept ministers to account.
“I don’t ask daft questions – the items referred to were mentioned in the answer provided to a legitimate query on the scandalous rise in Scottish Government spending on lavish receptions and entertainment.”