The Scottish health secretary, Michael Matheson, is to be investigated by Holyrood authorities over the near-£11,000 bill racked up on his work iPad.
The Scottish parliament announced on Thursday its ruling body had begun an inquiry to protect, it said, the integrity of its expenses scheme and make sure public confidence in Holyrood had not been damaged by the controversy.
The investigation, which could lead to Matheson being referred to Holyrood’s standards committee or see his rights to expenses curtailed, was announced after the health secretary admitted last Thursday his sons had used taxpayer-funded mobile data to watch football matches on their Christmas holiday.
It emerged last month Matheson had run up a £10,935 data roaming bill on a family holiday in Morocco and had initially insisted it was a legitimate parliamentary expense. It was so large, he claimed, because he had not realised his sim card was out of date and no longer in contract.
Holyrood officials accepted his word, and agreed that £3,000 of that would be paid through his office expenses while the remainder funded by parliament.
The row again dominated first minister’s questions on Thursday, with the Conservative and Labour leaders repeating their calls for Matheson to be sacked.
Douglas Ross, the Scottish Tory leader, said Matheson’s admissions last week the data was used by his children proved his original written assurances that it was used entirely on constituency work were “false”.
During heated exchanges with Humza Yousaf, the first minister, Ross said Matheson “tried to dupe the taxpayer out of £11,000”. Yousaf said the health secretary had rightly admitted he had made mistakes: “He did what he did to protect his teenage boys.”
Matheson agreed to repay the full amount on 10 November but without disclosing why. On Monday 13 November he told reporters there had been no personal use of the iPad before telling Yousaf the next day his sons had used it to watch football.
Matheson previously told MSPs he had learned from his wife the previous evening – the day the row first blew up – that his sons had used parliamentary data to watch football. He said he failed to disclose that immediately because he wanted to protect his family from public scrutiny.
Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, said there were now mounting examples of Yousaf’s government misleading MSPs, raising doubts about its honesty and integrity.
The first minister had had to correct his own statements to parliament three times this year, Sarwar said, including his factually wrong claim Scotland produced a majority of the UK’s renewables on a per capita basis. Yousaf insisted he took the ministerial duty to be truthful and accurate “very seriously”.
2023-11-23 10:45:28
Post from www.theguardian.com
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