Michael Matheson urged to tell 'full truth' as speculation grows £11,000 iPad bill was due to 'watching football games'

Michael Matheson is being urged to tell the "full truth" over his holiday iPad usage following the release of a breakdown of his bill.

Scotland's health secretary was charged more than £7,000 in fees in just one day - with opposition MSPs speculating Mr Matheson could have been streaming the Old Firm derby on the device.

The breakdown of the bill emerged after First Minister Humza Yousaf gave his backing to Mr Matheson amid a threat of no confidence and said the "matter is now closed".

Mr Matheson is preparing to make a personal statement to the Scottish parliament on the matter. It is expected to take place at 2pm on Thursday.

At First Minister's Questions, Mr Yousaf agreed with Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross that "there is clearly more to it" ahead of Mr Matheson's statement.

Mr Matheson has come under fire for racking up nearly £11,000 in data roaming fees on his parliamentary iPad during a family trip to Morocco last winter.

The Falkirk West MSP initially billed the taxpayer after claiming the device was used for constituency work.

He then U-turned and agreed to foot the whole bill from his own pocket after it emerged last week that he had failed to switch over from Holyrood's old mobile contract to a new one which had led to the excessive charges.

A breakdown of the data usage between 28 December 2022 and 3 January 2023 has now been released via an FOI, which shows that Mr Matheson was billed thousands of pounds in one day due to his failure to replace the old SIM card.

The largest data usage occurred on 2 January. There were two separate entries for the day, including £1,320 for 710MB and £7,345 for 3.18GB.

No figure is listed for 1 January, so one of the entries could relate to that day due to a lag effect in the billing system.

Scottish Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser suggested the charges could have been related to a Rangers and Celtic game.

Posting on X, formerly Twitter, he said: "I'm sure it's just a coincidence that there was an Old Firm match on 2 January."

The second largest fee was on 28 December, when Mr Matheson was charged £2,249 for using 1.26GB.

Scottish Tory MSP Stephen Kerr noted that Hibs faced Celtic on that day.

He posted on X: "A coincidence? We need the full truth."

In total, Mr Matheson used more than 6GB of data over the course of the week.

Breakdown of bill:
28 December 2022: 1.26GB - £2,249.17
30 December 2022: 68.70MB - £0
31 December 2022: 505.67MB - £20.17
2 January 2023: 710.89MB - £1,320.71
2 January 2023: 3.18GB - £7,345.69
3 January 2023: 392.66 MB - £6

The Scottish parliament said the incident has triggered an urgent policy review around mobile device use and data roaming charges.

Presiding Officer Alison Johnstone said: "We must be in a position where we have reviewed and tightened all policies to ensure the present situation cannot happen again."

At First Minister's Questions on Thursday, Douglas Ross quizzed Mr Yousaf over the data usage.

The Scottish Tory leader stated that the £7,345 bill took place on a public holiday, and in context would equate to Mr Matheson sending "8,000 emails in that one day".

He later added that the health secretary "has stopped doing his job" due to the matter as he had cancelled a government visit to a Glasgow GP surgery that morning.

Mr Ross added: "So this really matters when Scotland's NHS is in crisis and we're approaching winter.

"It matters if there's an intent to dupe taxpayers out of £11,000. For nearly a year, Michael Matheson was happy for the taxpayer to pick up this bill.

"He made no attempt to repay it until he was caught. His story is farcical beyond belief.

"So, I'm going to repeat my question to the first minister. Can he guarantee that Michael Matheson ran up all of these costs on parliamentary business - yes or no?"

In response, Mr Yousaf highlighted that Mr Matheson was due to give a statement to the Scottish parliament on the issue.

He added: "There is clearly more to it. Douglas Ross is absolutely right.

"What I won't do is pre-empt the personal statement that Michael Matheson has agreed with the presiding officer to make later this afternoon.

"He will lay out in full detail what has happened."