MSPs claim £32,000 per day in expenses

MSPs claimed a total of £11.8 million in expenses last year – equivalent to more than £32,000 a day and up slightly on the previous 12 months.

Western Isles MSP Alasdair Allan once again topped the list in 2010-11 with claims totalling £43,555, although this was slightly down on the previous year.

Independent Lothians MSP Margo MacDonald spent the least, £2,908, pushing her fellow Lothians MSP, Labour’s George Foulkes, into second place.

But the bill for MSPs’ staff salaries and pensions jumped by £450,000 from £8.39 million to £8.84m.

The total expenses and allowances bill of £11,849,399 in 2010-11 was £186,801 up on the previous year.

The Scottish Parliament said the expenses claims represented a real-terms reduction because the increase is lower than the rate of inflation.

A Scottish Parliament spokesman said: “This year’s total expenditure shows a 1.6 per cent increase on last year’s figures.

“With RPI [Retail Price Index] standing at 5.3 per cent and CPI [Consumer Price Index] at 4.0 per cent over the same period, this is a significant real-terms reduction in expenditure by MSPs when carrying out their parliamentary duties.

These figures pre-date the two-year pay and expenses freeze for MSPs which came into effect on 1 April 2011.”

About £36,000 was spent on air travel by MSPs and their staff, although the bulk of this was down to those covering the Western and Northern Isles.

MSPs claimed £66,539 in mortgage interest payments last year for second homes they bought in the capital as part of the Edinburgh accommodation allowance scheme. This had allowed them to buy a second home in Edinburgh for work at the Parliament if they lived far away enough from Edinburgh.

The controversial payments were ended in March after concerns that MSPs were using them to cash in on the Edinburgh property market when it was booming.

The taxi bill for MSPs and their staff hit £27,368, although this was down £4,000 on the previous year.

Former energy minister Jim Mather spent the most on food, with £1,114 spent on hotel evening meals, closely followed by Glasgow Conservative MSP Bill Aitken who spent £1,080. In total, MSPs spent £8,552 on hotel evening meals, with Mr Mather and Mr Aitken accounting for more than a quarter of the bill.

Figures cover the financial year to March, just before the last Holyrood election, meaning that many MSPs covered by the latest statistics are no longer at parliament.