A Scottish government minister, Michael Matheson, faced criticism after running up an £11,000 data roaming bill on his parliament-issued iPad while in Morocco. It was revealed that he had
been warned almost a year earlier to update his device.
Matheson incurred the "huge" charges during last Christmas's holiday because his tablet had not been switched to a new data provider, despite receiving an email advising him to do so in February 2022. The roaming bill was deemed a legitimate cost by Humza Yousaf, the first minister, as Matheson stated he used the iPad for official parliamentary and constituency business.
The cost has been covered from the public purse, with £3,000 coming from Matheson's expense budget and the rest paid by the parliament. Opposition MSPs have called for Matheson to cover the bill himself, and there are demands for an investigation into why such substantial charges are being paid from public funds. The parliament is reviewing a new mobile data policy to make MSPs personally liable for excessive bills if they fail to adhere to IT office requests. Photo by Scottish Government, Wikimedia commons.