Michael Matheson expenses in his capacity as a Government Minister: FOI release

Information requested

A full list of expenses accrued by Michael Matheson and members of his staff in relation to his duties as Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport and Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care. Could this data please be provided for the period 20 May 2021 to 16 November 2023.

Response

I have included a list of expenses accrued by Michael Matheson’s Private Office staff for the period outlined in your request. This information can be found in below in Annex A.

In relation to the expenses accrued by Michael Matheson Ministerial engagements, travel and gifts received are routinely and proactively published in line with the Ministerial Code. This includes ministerial expense claims. Therefore, the following exemption applies to this information:

Under Section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you.

In looking at the two relevant expenses for Mr Matheson in October 2022, I can flag that the entries in the published data were updated yesterday (14 December). This is because in the course of checking the entries for this FOI, we identified an administrative error made by a civil servant. The cost of the subsistence was entered as euros instead of being converted to pounds. The update changes the values from £24.00 and £17.80, to £20.92 and £15.51. The two subsistence costs were 24 euros and 17.80 euros respectively.

ANNEX A - 

EXPENSES ACCRUED BY CABINET SECRETARY MICHAEL MATHESON PRIVATE OFFICE TEAM MEMBERS

Date	Expense Type	Cost (£)
09/03/2022 – 23/03/2022	Taxi	6.25
	Motor Mileage	27.77
16/03/2022	Motor Mileage	155.70
04/05/2022 – 24/05/2022	Public Transport Rail Standard	10.70
	Public Transport Rail Standard	27.60
14/06/2022 – 15/06/2023	Taxi	17.40
	Meals Allowance	15.70
	Taxi	16.40
09/05/2022 – 10/05/2022	Meals Allowance	12.84
	Subsistence	44.30
	Meals Allowance	5.57
	Public Transport Rail Standard	14.83
	Rotterdam city tax	12.27
27/07/2022 – 05/08/2022	Public Transport Rail Standard	10.70
	Meals Allowance	5.85
	Meals Allowance	13.64
25/08/2022	Public Transport Rail Standard	14.00
24/10/2022 – 25/10/2022	Meals Allowance	17.26
	Public Transport – Bus	7.50
	Meals Allowance	25.28
15/11/2022	Taxi	15.00
	Taxi	15.30
16/11/2022 – 14/12/2022	Motor Mileage	10.70
	Motor Mileage	11.88
19/11/2022 – 25/11/2022	Motor Mileage	28.17
	Motor Mileage	28.17
10/01/2023 – 11/01//2023	Taxi	19.50
	Meals Allowance	10.50
	Meals Allowance	15.00
16/01/2023	Public Transport Rail Standard	27.60
18/08/2023	Motor Mileage	77.68

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