Review of government spending after details emerge of how £14m of public money was used

Scottish Government credit card spending will be reviewed after it emerged officials spent £14 million in three years.

First Minister Humza Yousaf said he would ask the government’s top civil servant to check the rules were “robust”.

He said: “These were spends that were made a number of years ago, between 2019 and 2022. It's fair to ask the questions that people are asking about.

“Was this item spent? Why was it spent? Why was it bought by the civil service and potentially by government ministers?

“I will ask the Permanent Secretary [John-Paul Marks] to just review, 'Do we have the right procedures in place when it comes to spend?'.

“At the same time, civil servants reading books about governing well - it's not a bad thing.

“I quite like my civil servants to read. But I do take the point. I think I saw some items on it, on the spend that was mentioned… I can understand why people have got questions.

“I will ask the Permanent Secretary to take a look at, Do we have the robust rules in place when it comes to that kind of spend.”

Civil servants spent almost £10,000 on government-issued bank cards on VIP airport services all over Europe for former first minister Nicola Sturgeon.

Some of the more unusual purchases included yoga classes, nail polish and Edinburgh Festival tickets.

It also includes purchasing six copies of “Women Hold Up Half the Sky”, a book of speeches by Ms Sturgeon, a printed copy of the government’s own 2014 independence white paper, a book on Marxism, and 21 copies of “How to Run a Government so that Citizens Benefit and Taxpayers Don’t Go Crazy”.

Scottish Labour claimed the spending shows the SNP is “frittering away public money on frivolous purchases”.

The Scottish Government issues senior staff with credit card style electronic purchasing cards for buying goods and services of up to £5,000 per transaction.

A summary of all purchases over £500 was published previously, but Scottish Labour have now obtained a full breakdown of all purchases made over the three-year period.

This includes £9,898 on airport services for former first minister Ms Sturgeon in UK and European airports.

There was also £1,271 spent at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam on VIP services in February 2020, including private security and passport checks, and lounge access.

Other purchases include £4,182 on 8 September 2019 for hospitality and accommodation at the luxury five-star Gleneagles Hotel. This was just before the Solheim Cup women’s golf tournament at the resort, and the expenses included a £856 payment for “hospitality with UK sports minister”.

Some of the more unusual items listed included a driving theory test for a member of staff, china crockery for a meeting room, nail polish, a yoga class, a £1.59 leaving card, a £27 home disco from eBay, £272 for wellington boots, and £24.99 for heel stoppers at an event involving Ms Sturgeon in Berlin.

During the coronavirus lockdown there were a large number of homeworking items such as computer monitors purchased.

Beyond this, there were 3,000 items which had no description, and £25,000 fraudulent transactions occurred on the cards, which were flagged up by civil servants for refunds.

Accidental purchases which went on to be refunded were also listed, including for a vacuum cleaner and Amazon Prime memberships.

A spokesperson for the government said it was committed to delivering the best value for money for taxpayers.

They said: “Spending through electronic purchasing cards is used to support government officials during their usual course of work such as on training, catering, room hire and one-off supplies.

“The cards are not for personal expenditure and there are robust authorisation and regular auditing arrangements in place to monitor their use.”

They added: “For security reasons we cannot comment on the first minister’s travel arrangements.”

Review of government spending after details emerge of how £14m of public money was used

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