9am Briefing: Parliament cleaning bill tops £5m in three years

MORE than £5 million has been spent on cleaning and gardening at the Scottish Parliament in the last three years.

Parliament bosses have handed out millions of pounds on housekeeping services, such as cleaning ponds and artwork, since 2008.

Documents reveal 1,586,500 had been paid to clean the building's interior and exterior, and 1,765,603 had gone on 'planned maintenance'.

• INTERNET users in Edinburgh benefit from faster broadband than anywhere else in the UK.

Ofcom produced a league table showing the differences in connection, with the Capital showing a significantly better picture than its local authority rivals in Scotland.

It also stated that the city was the best in the entire UK.

• THE hospitality sector could save 64 million a year by tackling food waste, according to a new report.

The publication from Zero Waste Scotland estimates that businesses in the industry send just over 130,000 tonnes of waste per year to landfill – and 77 per cent of this is potentially recyclable.

The report also states that food waste disposed of by the hospitality sector is 53,500 tonnes annually, two-thirds of which could have been eaten.