Minister to make statement on football chauffeur row

Neil Gray will address MSPs about his use of ministerial cars

Health secretary Neil Gray will make a statement at the Scottish Parliament on Thursday to address his use of a ministerial car to travel to football games.

The Dons fan was driven by a chauffeur to watch Aberdeen play at Hampden three times in six months.

All the visits were classed as official ministerial engagements where the use of chauffeur-driven cars would have been approved by civil servants.

However, he has been criticised by opposition parties who have claimed the trips were "excessive" and "hypocritical" after the SNP criticised Labour politicians for attending similar events.

When challenged on the issue by journalists at Holyrood, Gray refused to answer further questions, only saying that "it's important that parliament's given an opportunity to explore these issues".

A government spokesperson said the publicly-funded car trips were "in accordance" with their policies, which represented value for money to the public.

They added that sport was part of Gray's remit as health secretary, and said he regularly attended sporting events "to support workers and players".

Ministers are entitled to publicly-funded transport as part of their job.

But the policy states it “cannot be provided from public funds for journeys where the principal purpose is not connected to the performance of ministerial duties”.

VIP seats

Gray was given VIP seats at Hampden - as a guest of the Scottish Football Association (SFA) - three times, once in his current role and two when he was wellbeing economy, fair work and energy secretary.

The Airdrie and Shotts MSP watched Aberdeen v Hibernian in the Scottish League Cup semi-final in November, and the final against Rangers in December, as well as the semi-final of the Scottish Cup against Celtic in April.

The minister, originally from Orkney, was also driven to an Aberdeen home league match against Livingston in May during a day of ministerial visits in the city.

The first two matches were logged on the Scottish government's ministerial engagements, travel and gifts register as meetings with the SFA about the “social impact” of investment in sport.

The latter two were registered under the subject "sport".

Other ministers have been driven to sporting events recently too, including:

• Siobhian Brown, the community safety minister, went to Scotland's friendly against Finland at Hampden (described as being related to “safer communities”)

• Employment and Investment Minister Tom Arthur also used the car service for a trip to Hampden to watch the Scottish Cup final between Celtic and Rangers (logged as a ministerial visit for “sport/investment”)

Michael Matheson was forced to quit after an £11k data bill was racked up on his parliamentary iPad

Gray took over as health secretary from Michael Matheson last year.

Matheson was forced to quit after an £11k data bill was racked up on his parliamentary iPad.

He claimed it had been used by his sons to watch football matches during a family holiday.

He repaid the costs after the story broke but left his ministerial post in light of a critical report by Holyrood officials, which found he breached Parliament's expenses policy.

Opposition criticism

Scottish Tory deputy leader Rachael Hamilton said the SNP's "shoddy excuses" in defence of Neil Gray made the row look like "another Michael Matheson affair".

She said: "What is it with SNP health secretaries and claiming taxpayer funds to watch the football?

"The SNP's shoddy excuses are making Neil Gray's chauffeur scandal look a lot like the Michael Matheson affair."

She also accused the SNP of being hypocritical after criticising the UK Labour party for accepting freebies during the summer's general election campaign.