Minister racks up £11,000 bill for taxpayers using iPad on holiday

10 November 2023 , 12:57

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Michael Matheson has been urged to pay back nearly £11,000 of roaming charges (Image: PA)

A minister has come under fire after racking up a bill of nearly £11,000 using his taxpayer-funded work iPad while on holiday.

The massive bill was built up by Scottish Health Secretary Michael Matheson, with roaming charges costing over £65 an hour for the seven days he was away. He faces calls to “do the right thing” and cough up the cash himself.

The SNP politician claims the roaming charge was the result of an "outdated" Sim card in a device he used to do constituency work. Mr Matheson racked up a fee of £10,935.74 during his week-long visit to Morocco around Christmas last year. The Scottish Parliament said it had tried to get some of the sum waived, but had been unsuccessful.

Now Labour has demanded Mr Matheson meets the cost himself. Scottish deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: “The Scottish public are understandably looking on with bafflement at the scale of the Mr Matheson’s bill and his nonchalant attitude to such a serious situation.

“At a time of cost-of-living crisis, Mr Matheson’s flippant approach to this situation is deeply offensive to thousands of Scots.” She added: “Mr Matheson was told repeatedly by the Parliament to replace his Sim. The responsibility for this lies with him.

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“The time has come for Michael Matheson to do the right thing and pay up himself. Failure to do so will only further weaken public trust in this scandal-hit SNP government.”

The Scottish Parliament is set to review whether MSPs should be held “personally liable for costs where they have not acted in full accordance with IT office requirements”, the Daily Record reports. The minister has said he will pay £3,000 towards the bill from his expenses budget, with the rest paid by the Scottish Parliament.

He told reporters: "It's been explained that it's been caused by an outdated Sim card in an iPad that I had for constituency purposes. "I wasn't aware that it had to be replaced and the cost built up as a result of that."

The Tories have also voiced their outrage at the SNP health chief. Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy raised a point of order in the Scottish Parliament on Thursday. He said: "Last night it was reported that an MSP in this chamber racked up a bill of £11,000 through data roaming charges whilst on holiday. A tab that has been picked up entirely by the taxpayer.

"For clarity, that is £65 an hour, 24 hours a day for the seven days he was on holiday in far-flung Morocco. This incident has damaged the reputation of the Scottish Parliament."

He told Presiding Officer Alison Johnstone: "Therefore I urge you to conduct a full investigation into this matter, including publishing the full bill that was incurred by Mr Matheson, to explore why the Parliament has appeared to break its own rules of a cap of £200 on roaming charges by paying the bill entirely, and exploring whether Mr Matheson himself has broken any parliamentary rules by claiming for such a large sum."

On Thursday, Holyrood confirmed that Mr Matheson’s data charges were investigated by a “senior member of the Parliament’s IT office in January this year”. A Scottish Parliament spokesperson said this confirmed that “Mr Matheson had not updated his iPad’s Sim card to the new provider as required, or notified the IT office before travelling, so that the appropriate roaming package could be applied”.

The spokesperson added: “At the conclusion of the investigation senior officials accepted Mr Matheson’s assurances that all costs incurred were for parliamentary purposes.”

However, Parliament senior management agreed in September that there should be a policy review of mobile data usage, with the spokesperson stating: “The policy review will include consideration of the potential for Members to be personally liable for costs where they have not acted in full accordance with IT office requirements.”

The review is due to be completed before the end of March 2024. In addition to this, the spokesperson said the Parliament will shortly award a new mobile contract that will “enhance technical controls to ensure there is no repeat of these substantial data charges”.