Health Secretary Michael Matheson is facing backlash after accumulating an £11,000 roaming charges bill while using his parliamentary iPad on vacation in Morocco. While Matheson has agreed

to personally cover £3,000 of the expenses from his budget, the remaining amount will be funded by the Scottish Parliament's budget. The health secretary contends that the iPad was utilized for constituency work during the period of roaming charges.

The charges, reported by The Telegraph, were incurred during Matheson's week-long trip to Morocco with his family around Christmas last year. Although Parliament officials attempted to dispute the charges, the mobile service provider declined to waive the costs. The Scottish Parliament, having switched to a different mobile provider, challenged the company over the substantial data fees beyond its standard "rest of the world" tariff rate.

A Scottish Parliament spokesperson explained, "The parliament challenged the company over the scale of the data fees and over the late warning to the rising cost, but the company declined to meet or waive any of the charges." Matheson assured the parliament that the costs were related to parliamentary business, leading to an agreement in which he would contribute £3,000 from his office cost provision, and the remainder would be covered centrally by the parliament.

Roaming charges are additional fees incurred when using mobile devices abroad. In response to the situation, Scottish Labour deputy leader Dame Jackie Baillie expressed disbelief, criticizing the SNP for apparent fiscal irresponsibility. Scottish Conservatives chairman Craig Hoy called the taxpayer-funded payment "scandalous" and urged Matheson to personally cover the remaining £7,900 not covered by his expenses. Hoy emphasized that even if Matheson was conducting parliamentary and constituency work during the holiday, he should have taken steps to avoid excessive roaming charges. Photo by Scottish Government, Wikimedia commons.