Government spends £500,000 a year on mobile phones

THE SNP government spent more than £2 million of taxpayers cash on mobile phone contracts for ministers and officials during its first term in office, new figures have revealed. A Freedom of Information request by The Scotsman revealed the bill increased for each full year, with the amount in excess of £500,000 for every 12 month period covered.

Taxpayers paid 558,964 for the contracts during the six months between October 2007 and March 2008.

The Scottish Government said it had no record of the bill for 2007 before October that year.

A total of 577,353 was spent during 2008-09, with the bill increasing to 581,536 during 2009-10, with 431,135 spent between April and December 2010. Officials said details for 2011 were not available.