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This is an option that the Scottish Government has considered in the past, but it was agreed that hotels were not suitable places to provide health and social care. For a facility to operate as a care home in Scotland, it must be registered with the Care Inspectorate. When registering a service, the Care Inspectorate will consider if the premises in which the proposed service will be provided is fit to be used for the intended purpose. In the case of using hotel rooms as care homes, it is likely the case that such premises would not be suitable to meet people's needs in a person centred way. We recently issued £40m for interim care to make use of spare capacity in settings that are able to provide care in this way

We also aim to create additional capacity in the community by scaling up the provision of Hospital at Home services and £500,000 has been specifically invested to support the creation of a Covid remote monitoring pathway which will support people to stay safe at home through the provision of remote monitoring kits and dedicated support teams.

The Scottish Government is not liable for environmental remediation costs.

The Scottish Government and TATA Steel do not have any claim on the land upon which the Dalzell steelworks are situated.

Steel production in Scotland had effectively ceased at the time. Our intervention enabled production to recommence and to get skilled Steel workers back to work.

The Scottish Government does not assert that Tata Steel has liabilities relating to the environmental remediation costs for the site of the Dalzell steelworks. In the majority of cases potential contaminated land is dealt with routinely through the development planning system or voluntary remediation with the responsibility and costs for carrying out site investigation and any required remediation resting with the site owner / developer.

The original FOI request and the subsequent review were handled by the Scottish Government in compliance with its statutory obligations under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA). Where any requester is dissatisfied with the outcome of a review, there is a clear statutory route by which they may appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner, within six months. Any new request received by the Scottish Government would be considered afresh, in compliance with our obligations under FOISA.

Scottish Government officials contacted TATA Steel UK on 9 December 2021 to inform the company of its findings concerning the potential presence of State Aid with respect to 2016 transaction. Channels of communication between the Scottish Government and Tata Steel UK to facilitate dialogue remain open but it would not be appropriate to publish the detailed content of these commercially sensitive exchanges.

Since Ministers were informed of the potential presence of State Aid with respect to its 2016 contract with Tata Steel UK Scottish Government officials have engaged with (a) Tata Steel UK on the following occasions, 9-12-21; 10-12-21; 13-12-21; 14-12-21; 15-12-21; 24-12-21 and 12-1-22 and (b) Liberty Steel-GFG Alliance on the following occasions 9-9-21; 8-11-21; 15-12-21; and 24-1-22.

Channels of communication between the Scottish Government and relevant businesses remain open but it would not be appropriate to publish the detailed content of these commercially sensitive exchanges.

Liberty Steel Dalzell continues to trade. At the time of the deal, in 2016, a parent company guarantee was signed with Liberty House, which meant that, if the part of the company at Liberty Steel Dalzell ceased to exist, the liabilities would pass to the wider group.

We have considered the compliance and disclosure risks associated with significant and complex transactions. This includes the high-profile interventions that the Scottish Government has supported in recent years as outlined in 2020-21 Annual Accounts.

These transactions have been reviewed and, on the basis of information available it remains the case that there was no state aid present in any of the transactions. We have also obtained assurances in respect of the appropriate recognition and disclosure of contingent liabilities.