Michael Matheson, former Scottish Health Secretary and current MSP for Falkirk West, is eligible for a severance fee of £12,712 following his iPad fee scandal and subsequent resignation.
Matheson resigned after racking up a bill of over £10k on his work iPad while on holiday in Morocco in late 2022.
He initially claimed that this was due to parliamentary work on an unknowingly outdated SIM card, but later conceded that the charges were run up by his sons watching a football match.
When the roaming bill was believed to be solely work-related, it was to be paid jointly by Matheson’s office expenses and by parliament, but Matheson has since paid the bill in full.
He originally insisted that he would not resign from his ministerial role, but did so on 8 February 2024, ahead of the publication of a currently unreleased report by the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body (SPCB) regarding the roaming charges.
The severance fee that Matheson is entitled to is three months of his annual ministerial salary, which at the time of resignation was £50,849.
There is controversy over whether Matheson should accept this severance fee, with some urging him not to accept it.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said that the public would be “appalled” and “rightly outraged” if the payment is accepted after Matheson “continued disgraced in office for several months.”
Ross has also questioned Matheson’s future as an MSP once the SPCB report is published.
Neil Gray, Matheson’s successor as Scottish Health Secretary, has said that the severance is “a right afforded to him”, and that it is “for [Matheson] to decide” if he accepts it.
The resignation triggered a wider cabinet reshuffle by First Minister Humza Yousaf which saw the appointment of Kaukab Stewart as culture minister, the first woman of colour in Scottish government.
The reshuffle has also faced criticism from opposition – Scottish Labour deputy leader, Jackie Baillie, said that:
“This weak first minister can reshuffle the pack all he wants – the fact is that all the cards left are jokers.”
“Michael Matheson” by Scottish Government is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.