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All local authorities have been informed of their potential allocations from the up-to-£5 million fund. Our funding letter makes clear that remedial action should be undertaken in line with guidance on ventilation, with problematic spaces prioritised for action.

We have also agreed updated reporting arrangements with local authorities to ensure an appropriate understanding of how and to what extent funding is being used to support remedial action.

We will provide an update to the Education, Children and Young People Committee in due course, subject to receipt of local authority returns.

While the site continues to operate on the basis of the current operational functions there is no cause to look towards any environmental remediation. As outlined in the previous answer, any environmental remediation follows in a situation where operational licences are being handed back and are dealt with on a regulatory basis. The polluter pays principles are used to ensure that the land can be remediated to another purpose if this is required. When dealing with potentially contaminated land through either the development planning system, or if voluntary remediation is undertaken, it is for the developer or landowner to investigate and assess the extent of contamination and undertake any remediation that would be required. These remain hypothetical scenarios as the current site is operating and continuing to produce steel.

Openreach’s Fibre Community Partnership is a commercial offering and, therefore, the Scottish Government has no remit to intervene in their operation of that scheme, given the reserved nature of telecoms in the UK.

Properties, including those in the R100 North lot (Lot 1), may be eligible for a voucher through the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme – either an interim voucher (worth up to £400) or a main voucher (worth up to £5,000), depending on connection status. People can check their eligibility using our online checker at www.scotlandsuperfast.com .

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published guidance on what is reasonable for a policyholder to rely on to satisfy the burden of proof for claims against Business Interruption Insurance. This includes, but is not limited to, a range of publicly available data including the Public Health Scotland Daily Dashboard which provides information about the location of positive cases in Scotland.

We have been as open and transparent as possible, with professional analysts publishing available data seven days a week to inform the public on how the pandemic is progressing. The data made available will continue to evolve over time to ensure the most relevant information is included, and it is fit for purpose. This supports public scrutiny and transparency, providing timely and equal access to data for the public, media and other commentators.

Work is underway with Public Health Scotland and other partners to review the content and frequency of all Scottish Government current data reporting to identify what is required to support resilience and recovery in the future. This will involve prioritising the modelling, data and analysis that is essential to support the future monitoring and surveillance of Covid. We also need to establish the data and evidence required to monitor the wider harms of Covid in the future. A data and reporting strategy will be published in Spring to support implementation of the Strategic Framework following consultation on any planned changes.

There is no evidence at this time to suggest that insurance companies are not following the FCA’s guidance or that there are any specific issues regarding access to data to support insurance claims being made by businesses in Scotland. The Scottish Government stands ready to work constructively with the United Kingdom Government, the FCA and the insurance industry and will engage with them specifically on this matter as part of regular ministerial and official engagement activity.

There are a total of 3,374 properties in the KA24 postcode area. As of 11 February 2022:

• 3,061 properties are already able to access superfast broadband speeds of 30 Megabits per second (Mbps) or above and, therefore, are not included within build plans for the Reaching 100% (R100) Central contract.
• 205 properties are within R100 Central contract build plans, with that build expected to be completed by the first half of 2023. They may be eligible for an interim voucher – worth up to £400 – through the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (R100 SBVS) and people can check their eligibility using our online checker at www.scotlandsuperfast.com . The interim voucher portion of the R100 SBVS was recently extended to 31 March 2022, giving people more time to secure a connection.
• 101 properties are not included within R100 Central contract build plans and, therefore, are eligible for a main voucher – worth up to £5,000 – through the R100 SBVS.

• The remaining 7 properties are expected to receive superfast connections as a result of commercial coverage – they may also be eligible for an interim voucher through the R100 SBVS.

Vehicle Excise Duty is reserved to the UK Government with a proportion of the funds raised allocated to Scotland through the Barnett Formula as part of the block grant. Revenues raised from vehicle excise duty are not hypothecated and are therefore part of the overall Scottish Budget, rather than apportioned to any specific area of spending.

In Scotland, fishing vessel licences are issued by Marine Scotland, on behalf of Scottish Ministers. Scottish fishing vessel licences are issued for eligible vessels which are registered in Scotland by virtue of a Scottish address and port. Licenses are not issued by area, therefore no licenses have been issued, and no vessels are registered specific to the area covered by the Red Rocks and Longay MPA. There were 2093 Scottish licensed vessels in 2020.

The Cancellation Fund for Creative Freelancers has provided much-needed support to creative freelancers experiencing cancellations due to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.

Since opening the fund on 06 January, Creative Scotland received 1,946 applications to their Cancellation Fund for creative freelancers, totalling £3.33m.

On 21 February, Creative Scotland announced a further £8m support would be available to creative freelancers via a Hardship Fund for Creative Freelancers. This fund opened for applications on Wednesday 23 February and will support creative freelancers experiencing hardship due to lost income from work or practice in the creative sector due to Covid-19.

Scotland Cycle Repair Scheme (SCRS) originally targeted to deliver 20,000 cycle repairs or services to people in Scotland, focusing on those that need the support the most. Repairs and servicing are provided through a network of over 300 shops, retailers, community organisations and sole traders. There have been two iterations of the scheme and the number of bikes repaired during each is as follows;

First iteration of Aug 2020 – May 2021: 31,562 bikes were repaired

Second iteration of Nov 2021 – May 2022: 8,153 bikes have been repaired so far.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05818 on 2 February 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers