- 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 maintaining the Parliament's lift system has been in each of the last five years.
Answer
The total cost for maintenance of the lift system for the past four years including financial year 24-25 is as follows. For financial year 20/21 we do not hold information in a format that allows us to identify the costs of maintaining the lifts as it was included within a project capacity and therefore wouldn’t be accurate to what was spent solely on maintenance. All costs provided exclude VAT.
- 2024/25 - £30,411.89
- 2023/24 - £28,384.80
- 2022/23 - £25,012.17
- 2021/22 - £13,375.91
- 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 (a) plastic, (b) paper, (c) metal and (d) glass straws (i) it and (ii) its suppliers have procured, and what the average cost of each straw was, in each of the last 10 years.
Answer
Our catering services contractor does not hold data on straws that were purchased prior to 2022. We do not procure plastic straws for use in the catering services, the table below shows the data held for paper and metal straws.
| Paper straws | Metal straws |
Year | Straws purchased | Average price | Straws purchased | Average price |
2022 | 250 | 0.005p | 0 | n/a |
2023 | 500 | 0.005p | 20 | 0.78p |
2024 | 500 | 0.005p | 0 | n/a |
- 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 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: 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 |
- 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 flagpoles it owns and operates, what the height is of any flagpoles that it owns, and what the total maintenance cost has been for any such flagpoles, in each of the last 15 years.
Answer
The SPCB owns and operates five number flagpoles, and they are approximately 8.2 metres in height. There has been no general maintenance works needed to the flag poles in the last 15 years with the only cost for each being the annual LOLER inspection. LOLER stands for Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations and the flag poles are included within other inspections of the same type carried out across the parliament. The cost for LOLER inspection is included within the planned building maintenance contract and we do not hold information in a format which allows us to identify the flagpole inspections as an individual item.
- 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 what the cost of operating the Parliament crèche has been in each of the last five years.
Answer
The operating costs for the crèche over the last five years has been as follows –
2023/24 £108k
2022/23 Service closed
2021/22 Service closed
2020/21 Service closed
2019/20 £145k
- 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 of PAT testing Christmas decorations in the Parliament building has been in each of the last five years.
Answer
Christmas tree decorations are stored and delivered onsite by our service provider, with PAT testing costs covered by the contractor.