The Telegraph report:

The First Minister spent £259.40 on the trousers for a black tie ball he attended in China in December 2011 but did not pay back the money on his return to Scotland.

He only decided to reimburse the taxpayer after this newspaper tabled a request under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act in March this year that would have disclosed the purchase.

But it required a seven-month tussle with the Scottish Government and two inquiries by the FOI watchdog before his officials confirmed the money had been paid back after, not before, this newspaper’s intervention.

You can read the full story here. 

Matthew Burgess
http://www.mattburgess.co
I am a journalist and author. I am a journalist at the UK edition of WIRED magazine. In 2015, my first book Freedom of Information: A Practical Guide for UK Journalists, was published. My second book Reed Hastings: Building Netflix, was published in March 2020. I created FOI Directory in 2012 and have maintained it in my spare time ever since.