Michael Matheson: Holyrood's standards committee set to meet to discuss MSP's fate over £11,000 iPad bill breach

The former health secretary has been found to have broken two parts of the MSP code of conduct

Former health secretary Michael Matheson has been found to have broken two parts of the MSP code of conduct. Image: Jane Barlow/Press Association.

Holyrood’s standards committee is set to meet this morning to discuss Michael Matheson breaching the MSP code of conduct.

The meeting on Thursday morning will be held in private, after a report into the former health secretary found he had breached two parts of the code over his £11,000 iPad bill.

Today’s parliamentary schedule simply says the committee is set to discuss a “complaint”, and “consider its approach to a report from the Scottish Parliamentary Body”.

This committee has the power to recommend he be suspended, but there is no system in Holyrood for his constituents in Falkirk West to oust him through a recall petition like there is in Westminster.

First Minister Humza Yousaf has since said he doesn’t need to resign as an MSP over the scandal.

Mr Matheson was found to have breached the code after racking up £11,000 on his parliamentary iPad while on a family holiday in Morocco over the 2022/23 Christmas holidays.

He initially claimed the device had been used for parliamentary business and claimed this bill on his expenses.

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However it later emerged his sons had used the iPad as a hotspot to stream football matches.

On January 2 2023 alone, £8,666 in data charges were incurred on the iPad.

Mr Matheson has since agreed to pay back the money in full and after pressure from opposition parties has stepped down as Scotland’s health secretary.

He has been absent from Holyrood for the last six weeks.