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 SNP MSP and Deputy Whip Bill Kidd has today called on Lord George Foulkes to restrain his frivolous use of public cash after expenses from the House of Lords and research into his use of Parliamentary Questions showed he has cost the taxpayer nearly £150,000 in the last 18 months with nearly
£100, 000 of parliamentary questions - many on frivolous subjects - and over £50,000 of personal expenses for trips to the House of Lords.
Lord Foulkes has claimed expenses at the House of Lords of over £50,000 including £7,000 in daily subsistence expenses.
Glasgow MSP Bill Kidd said: "Lord George Foulkes - the SNP's best recruiting Sergeant - is an embarrassment to the Labour party.
"It is politician's job to ask serious questions of the government, but many of Foulkes questions are simply jokes at the taxpayers expense.
"At the same time he's adding to the bill with personal expenses of over £800 for every trip to the outdated and unelected House of Lords. Expenses he does not have to account for.
"His biggest success has been in exposing the far more frugal attitude of SNP Ministers to government than those of their Labour predecessors.
"He is costing taxpayers nearly five thousand pounds a month tabling parliamentary questions that are often ludicrous and utterly irrelevant.
"At a time when how taxpayers money is spent is under greater scrutiny than ever Lord Foulkes should stick to the serious subjects and stop wasting public cash in this way."
Notes:
1. House of Lords Expenses can be found here.
Lord Foulkes personal expenses claimed from the House of Lords for 54 visits are;
£21, 014 overnight expenses (or £389 per visit)
£7, 626 day subsistence (or £129 per day)
£16, 000 travel
2. The cost of Parliamentary Questions is set out below
Parliamentary Questions S3W-17445 - Ian McKee (Lothians) (SNP) (Date Lodged Monday, November 03, 2008): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-6776 by Bruce Crawford on 18 December 2007, whether an updated estimate of the financial cost of answering a written parliamentary question is available.
Answered by Bruce Crawford (Monday, November 10, 2008): Following a review by the Scottish Government Finance Administration, the average cost of answering a written parliamentary question is calculated to be £98.51. Full details can be found in the Study into the average cost of answering Scottish Government Parliamentary Questions copies of which have been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 46897).
3. Samples of Lord Foulkes frivolous Questions and those demonstrating the reduced cost to the taxpayer of an SNP administration in comparison the previous Labour administration are below
First Minister
S3W-18760 - George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab) (Date Lodged Wednesday, December 10, 2008): To ask the Scottish Executive how many times since he took office the First Minister has met Sandi Thom.
Answered by John Swinney (Thursday, December 18, 2008): The First Minister has met Sandi Thom on four occasions while undertaking government business.
Ministerial Costs
S3W-17900 - George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab) (Date Lodged Friday, November 14, 2008): To ask the Scottish Executive in what circumstances it meets dry cleaning costs incurred by Cabinet ministers and whether it will detail any such costs met since May 2007, broken down by Cabinet minister.
Answered by John Swinney (Friday, November 21, 2008): There have been no dry cleaning costs incurred by Cabinet ministers since May 2007.
Scottish Government
S3W-17899 - George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab) (Date Lodged Friday, November 14, 2008): To ask the Scottish Executive which members of the Scottish Government have received the services of a stylist since May 2007.
Answered by John Swinney (Thursday, November 20, 2008): None.
St Andrew's Day
S3W-17351 - George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab) (Date Lodged Thursday, October 30, 2008): To ask the Scottish Executive how many Saltire-branded space hoppers it has ordered for the purposes of celebrating St Andrew's Day 2008; where they were manufactured; what the item price is, and what the overall cost was of production.
Answered by Linda Fabiani (Thursday, November 13, 2008): The Scottish Government has not ordered any Saltire-branded space hoppers for the St Andrew''s Day celebrations. Space hoppers used in the St Andrew''s Day launch photocall on Friday 31 October 2008 belong to the PR company used by the Scottish Government for the delivery of St Andrew''s Day events.
Scottish Government Visits
S3W-17322 - George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab) (Date Lodged Wednesday, October 29, 2008): To ask the Scottish Executive what overseas visits were undertaken by the Permanent Secretary in each of the last three financial years; what class of travel was used, and what the total cost was.
Answered by John Swinney (Tuesday, November 11, 2008): The Permanent Secretary made the following overseas visits in the last three financial years.
2005-06 Financial Year
Date Visited Cost Class of Travel
24 June 2005 New York £2,633.70 Business
26 October 2005 Madrid £827.50 Business
29 January 2006 Lisbon £923.60 Business
Total £4,384.80
2006-07 Financial Year
17 June 2006 Beijing £3991.45 Business
20 June 2006 Shandong £107.55 Economy
12 November 2006 Brussels £510.75 Business
Total £4,609.75
2007-08 Financial Year
21 January 2008 Berlin £695.33 Business
13 February 2008 Dublin £281.30 Economy
Total £976.63
Ministerial Costs
S3W-17099 - George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab) (Date Lodged Wednesday, October 15, 2008): To ask the Scottish Executive what the total cost was of the First Minister's office in 2007-08, also broken down by different components, including staff, travel and entertainment costs.
Answered by John Swinney (Wednesday, November 12, 2008): The total spend for the First Minister''s office for 2007-2008 was £523,862. These are broken down as follows:
Staff £471,222 Travel £38,345 Hospitality £1,678 Administration £12,617 The comparative figure for 2006-07 was £638,356.
S3W-13819 - George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab) (Date Lodged Tuesday, June 03, 2008): To ask the Scottish Executive how many times its special advisers have used government cars from its car pool and how much the service has cost since May 2007.
Answered by John Swinney (Thursday, June 19, 2008): None.
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