The Scottish Government has spent almost £219,000 on overseas trips for ministers and their officials in the last three years, figures show.

In 2012-13, the last full year for which figures are available, the bill for overseas visits amounted to £99,595.24.

Between April and December last year, a further £53,418.63 was spent, while the total for 2011-12 was £65,912.08 - amounting to £218,925.95 since 2011.

Tory chief whip John Lamont said the Scottish Government had been "secretive" about the spending, and had only published all the details after action from the Information Commissioner.

A visit that Health Secretary Alex Neil and an official made to Boston, Ohio and Washington in the US last December to sign a memorandum of understanding and to learn from the American healthcare system cost £9,055.55.

A trip by First Minister Alex Salmond and three officials to the US last April cost £4,998.88, while Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland made two trips to America to mark the 25th anniversary of the Lockerbie bombing.

His trip to Syracuse University in New York last October cost £3,424.79 then in December he went to Washington, with the bill for that trip amounting to £2,119.00. On both occasions Mr Mulholland was accompanied by three officials.

But Mr Lamont said some of the visits - such as a trip by External Affairs Minister Humza Yousaf in July 2013 to Latvia for a song and dance festival at a cost of £720.44 - would leave the public "scratching their head".

The Conservative MSP said: "Why, for instance, when the Scottish Government doesn't have responsibility for external affairs, are dedicated ministers going to dance festivals and cultural visits?"

A spokesman for John Swinney said: "This is the height of hypocrisy from a Tory party which at Westminster, thinks nothing of spending £13 million in a single year on flights and hotels for just one department, the Foreign Office."