SNP ministers enjoyed £90k worth of taxpayer-funded international travel in 2023

Scottish Government ministers had at least 47 overseas trips in 2023 fully funded by the taxpayer at a cost of almost £90,000. This does not include the travel or accommodation costs for the 76 civil servants who accompanied them.

External Affairs Secretary Angus Robertson – dubbed 'Air Miles' – once again had the most foreign travel, visiting Norway, the USA, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Canada and China last year. His travel bill alone clocked in at more than £14,000.

The most expensive individual trip in 2023 was small business, tourism and trade minister Richard Lochhead's five-day jaunt to The Economist's Space Economy Summit in Los Angeles, which £11,755 for him alone. Costs for the three officials who accompanied him have not been disclosed.

According to the agenda, Mr Lochhead gave a 15-minute talk on the subject of 'Scotland in space' at the event which also featured experts from Nasa and Space-X alongside youthful Scots 'asteroid mining' entrepreneur Mitch Hunter-Scullion, CEO and founder of the Asteroid Mining Corporation Ltd.

READ MORE:Globe-trotting Nicola Sturgeon flew four and a half times around the world as First Minister despite climate boasts

The second most expensive trip was one of four taken by First Minister Humza Yousaf, whose visit to New York for UN Climate Change Week in September cost £7,563, not including the bill for the official who accompanied him. This was just ahead of then Economy Secretary Neil Gray's six-day trip to Japan in April, costing £7,024. He was accompanied by two officials.

On two occasions, ministers were accompanied by no fewer than four officials on their travels – drugs policy minister Angela Constance for a trip to a conference in Austria in March 2023 and social care minister Maree Todd for a jaunt to the Rugby World Cup in France in September.

Her four-day visit took in Marseilles and Nice for a series of ministerial engagements at the start of the tournament, and cost £924 for her travel and subsistence. Deputy First Minister Shona Robison was back in France a few weeks later for another trip to the rugby, accompanied by just one person this time, although her four-day trip cost £2,023.

Remarkably, only four of the 47 overseas visits took place without an official to accompany the minister, with all the others having either one, two or three civil servants on hand to carry the ministerial bags and perform other tasks.

The official figures, published as part of the ministerial travel and engagement series, list 21 different countries visited by ministers in 2023. They even include a visit by Angus Robertson to London – although the Daily Express has removed this from the total as it clearly should be classed as domestic travel.

France and Belgium were the most popular destinations, each with six ministerial visits, followed by the USA (four) and then Norway, Iceland and the Republic of Ireland with three visits.

Which Scottish ministers travelled the most in 2023?

In response to previous criticism of ministerial globe-trotting, a Scottish Government spokesman said: "Travel is an essential part of official government business, we take our responsibility to travel sustainably very seriously and aim to use more sustainable forms of transport wherever possible.

"Any business flights taken by Scottish Government ministers and employees are offset by a carbon levy. The levy is used to fund carbon reduction projects that compensate for the carbon emissions generated."

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