SCOTTISH civil servants using public money to cover bowling trips, pottery lessons and luxury hotel visits makes for “uncomfortable reading,” an SNP minister admitted today as more spending details came to light. 

Data published by Scottish Labour earlier this week revealed senior officials had used government-issued credit-style cards to make almost 60,000 transactions over a three-year period, amounting to £14.2 million in total.

The revelations prompted Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf to instruct permanent secretary John Paul Marks — the most senior civil servant — to conduct a review into the spending between 2019 and 2022.