SNP ministers have spent almost £50,000 of taxpayers’ money on replacing government devices lost by staff in the last five years, it has emerged.
Details obtained under freedom of information show 138 items such as laptops, mobiles and tablets were “lost” and a further 20 “mislaid”.
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The total for the cash-strapped Scottish Government cost to £46,278.
Alexander Stewart, Scottish Tory shadow minister for local government and public finance, said: “The SNP love to squander taxpayers’ money.
“But this carelessness could also have serious consequences. These devices should be kept secure at all times, otherwise there is a real risk that crucial data could be lost or end up in the wrong hands.
“Taxpayers’ should not have to be footing a bill for tens of thousands to replace these devices due to negligence from the SNP.
“That is money that would have been better off spent on fixing Scotland’s ailing public services or supporting struggling families and businesses.”
Scottish Lib Dem MSP Willie Rennie said: “Losing your personal phone is embarrassing, but losing a government device could be reckless.
“The Government should explain if there have been any data breaches with the loss of sensitive information. Steps need to be put in place to prevent a repeat of these losses.”
The devices are set up to enable access to the government’s email and intranet services through a secure “bubble”.
It is the responsibility of those issued with a device to take additional precautions such as backing up email, contacts and photos.
Lost or stolen devices must be reported to the Government within 24 hours, according to its own IT code of conduct.
The employee’s secure “bubble” will be remotely wiped if the device is lost, the policy states.
Earlier this year, it was revealed social media and estate agent websites were among the most frequently accessed on the devices.
X, formerly Twitter, was ranked at number 17 in a list of the top 100 sites, with RightMove at 43.
Shopping websites including Amazon and eBay were also listed, along with job search website Indeed.
And there were almost 10,000 hits logged from government devices to the Ticketmaster website in August amid the desperate scramble for Oasis tickets.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “As is the case with many large organisations, devices are unfortunately sometimes lost, stolen or broken.
“While the number of devices represents a very small percentage of the total number in use — over 22,500 Scottish Government-issued laptops at any one time — every incident is reviewed to ensure appropriate action is taken.”
