- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it has conducted a review into the environmental impact of supplying sauce sachets and salt and pepper sachets.
Answer
We consistently monitor and review the use of single-use items throughout the catering services with our contractor, with sauce sachets now only available by request at the till to minimise waste. We have previously tried using pump-style dispensers to reduce the number of sachets, however there were several challenges around stocking, cleaning, and maintenance. We will continue to work with our service provider to identify measures to reduce single-use items across the services where possible.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what the cost has been of providing (a) tea, (b) coffee, (c) fruit and (d) biscuits in (i) the Members’ lounge and (ii) committee rooms, in each of the last 10 years.
Answer
We do not hold information on individual catering items that have been served at meetings, as meeting room hospitality is often ordered in a package format without specific item breakdowns being recorded. The costs for internal hospitality within the building cannot accurately be broken down to individual rooms or spaces.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how many desk chairs it has purchased, and what the total cost of this has been, in each of the last five years.
Answer
During the last five years 500 desk chairs have been purchased – these include chairs for Local Offices, Holyrood and Homeworkers (which include the covid years). We cannot provide the costs due to commercial confidentiality.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how many of any flags that it owns have (a) gone missing and (b) been wilfully damaged in each of the last 15 years.
Answer
We are unable to provide information predating 2024. In 2024, we had one flag which was stolen.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what the total cost has been of maintaining any flags that it owns in each of the last 15 years.
Answer
No cost for maintenance of flags has been incurred in the past 15 years. If a flag is damaged it is replaced with a new one.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how many flags it owns, and whether it will publish a list of them.
Answer
The Parliament currently owns 180 flags for external and internal use. There is not a published list of which flags we own.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 27 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 20 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on hospitality for visitors to its buildings in each of the last five years.
Answer
The following table summarises the value of hospitality costs on the Scottish Government’s financial reporting system for each of the last 5 full financial years.
2019-20 £s | 2020-21 £s | 2021-22 £s | 2022-23 £s | 2023-24 £s |
578,181 | 90,748 | 82,875 | 234,643 | 258,828 |
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how many flags it has purchased in each of the last 15 years, and what flags were purchased.
Answer
We do not hold this information.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what the total cost of window cleaning services has been in each of the last five years.
Answer
Window cleaning services at the Scottish Parliament are carried out by both Mitie Cleaning and Environmental Services Ltd (general cleaning contract) and TRAC International Ltd (High-level Building Maintenance Contract). We do not hold information in a format which allows us to identify the costs of cleaning windows. Payments made under both contracts do not distinguish window cleaning from other cleaning services undertaken by Mitie or as part of the work regularly done by Trac. Information about suppliers for each business area within the SPCB, including the provision of cleaning services is publicly available in the Contracts Register on the Scottish Parliament website.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how many sachets of (a) sauce and (b) salt and pepper (i) it and (ii) its suppliers have procured, and what the average cost was for each item, in each of the last 10 years.
Answer
Our catering services contractor holds data from 2015 onwards:
| Salt & Pepper sachets | Quantity | Average value |
| 2015 | 60,000 | 0.00341p |
| 2016 | 62,000 | 0.0034p |
| 2017 | 62,000 | 0.0036p |
| 2018 | 58,000 | 0.003595p |
| 2019 | 64,000 | 0.0036p |
| 2020 | 24,000 | 0.0036p |
| 2021 | 22,000 | 0.0037p |
| 2022 | 38,000 | 0.003677p |
| 2023 | 58,000 | 0.00409p |
| 2024 | 62,000 | 0.00292p |
| 2025 | 8,000 | 0.00292p |
| Sauce sachets | Purchased | Average value |
| 2015 | 39,600 | 0.0228p |
| 2016 | 40,200 | 0.024p |
| 2017 | 19,600 | 0.02625p |
| 2018 | 16,200 | 0.032p |
| 2019 | 9,000 | 0.0329p |
| 2020 | 10,800 | 0.0319p |
| 2021 | 13,400 | 0.0337p |
| 2022 | 14,800 | 0.0236p |
| 2023 | 16,400 | 0.0236p |
| 2024 | 18,200 | 0.0376p |
| 2025 | 1,000 | 0.0348p |