What expensive gifts have Scotland’s politicians declared?

Efforts have been made in Scotland to establish registers of lobbying and gifts – but there is a patchwork of them that can at times make things hard to pin down.

There is also a significant grey area concerning whether politicians are attending events for “work” – as representatives of the people – or in a more personal capacity.

For example, three of the six gifts registered by Anas Sarwar were tickets for the Royal Military Tattoo in Edinburgh. Fair enough, the tickets cost thousands of pounds.

However, there is no record on either the MSPs register or the ministerial one of the fact Humza Yousaf attended the same event last summer, as did Nicola Sturgeon the year before.

Nor is there a record of Ms Sturgeon attending the Platinum Jubilee Concert, or the final of Wimbledon – aside from claiming back her flights to London.

The contention from government will be that ministers attend such events in an official capacity, representing the Scottish government, rather than on a jolly.

The culture secretary will attend all sorts of events that others would have to buy a ticket for, all technically in the line of duty.

If they were mere backbenchers, they would have to declare it – but then again, maybe they wouldn’t have been invited at all.

So there is a curious position where the extent to which MSPs are courted by business is an indication of their potential influence.

But there is also an imbalance when it comes to precisely what is recorded about those who actually hold power.