Exclusive:Two Tory MSPs ask a fifth of all written questions in Holyrood
The two MSPs say they will ‘never apologise’ for holding the Scottish Government to account
Two Conservative MSPs were responsible for a fifth of all written questions in Holyrood in 2025.
Stephen Kerr MSP and Douglas Lumsden MSP both say they will “never apologise” for holding the Scottish Government to account, after new data shows they submitted thousands of questions to the government last year.
In 2025 Mr Lumsden was accused of using AI to bombard the parliament with hundreds of “frivolous” questions at once, something he denies.
Data compiled by the political monitoring company PoliMonitor ranked Mr Kerr, who represents Central Scotland, as the “busiest MSP” in the Scottish Parliament after he asked 1,493 written questions and made 574 spoken contributions last year.
Mr Lumsden was ranked second as he made 1,367 written questions and 300 spoken contributions.
The North East MSP tabled 989 of his questions in January 2025 alone, demanding to know how many salt, pepper and sauce sachets there are in the Holyrood canteen, how many straws the government had procured, how many parliament flags had gone missing, the number of flagpoles owned and their height, the profits made from jars of honey sold in the Holyrood shop, and how it verifies that the beeswax used for the Great Seal of Scotland comes from the parliament bees.
It is estimated this will have cost the public purse at least £100,000.
By contrast, Mr Lumsden asked just 15 questions in June.
Mr Kerr, on the other hand, asked 396 questions in April and 372 in May.
First Minister John Swinney, who speaks in the chamber numerous times every week, was ranked third with 1,327 spoken contributions.
A report from PoliMonitor said: “The concentration of written questions is notable given that both Mr Kerr and Mr Lumsden rank among the Conservative MSPs with the highest number of spoken contributions as well.
“In Mr Kerr’s case, the focus on accountability appears partly rooted in his broader critique of the Scottish Parliament's scrutiny of legislation and ministers.
“In recent months, Mr Kerr has published a variety of articles and interviews decrying the state of the Scottish Parliament, particularly the lack of scrutiny given to ministers over legislation and the overly-scripted nature of question sessions in the chamber.”
In total, the Scottish Conservatives asked 6,120 of the 11,163 written questions submitted in 2025. Scottish Labour asked 2,596 and the SNP asked 1,003.
PoliMonitor said both the Conservatives and Labour “account for a significantly higher share of written questions than their seat share would suggest”.
In response, Mr Lumsden told The Scotsman: “I will never apologise for holding this scandal-ridden SNP government to account.
“Nationalist ministers have spent the past two decades hiding from scrutiny over their dismal record and I am determined to get answers for my constituents.”
Mr Kerr added: “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.
“The SNP love the softball questions from their own backbenchers but can’t handle opposition politicians like myself asking them tough questions.”
The Scottish Labour MSP ranked the highest for number of contributions was Glasgow MSP Paul Sweeney.
The PoliMonitor added that Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar is “notably absent” in parliamentary contributions as “impact comes from carefully timed interventions rather than relentless scrutiny”.
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