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Due to the changes in responsibilities, it is difficult to provide an exact like-for-like comparison of Scottish Government funding from the UK Government over the last five years. However, excluding Social Security and EU Replacement funding (neither of which featured in the Scottish Budget limit 5 years ago), the amount of funding has increased from £30.662 billion in 2017-18 to £39.257 billion in 2022-23. This is a real terms increase of 14.3 per cent over the period.

As the Scottish Government remains committed to passing on every penny of additional health funding from the UK Government much of this increase has been allocated to Health which has a direct impact on all other areas of the Scottish Budget, including local government.

If Health funding is excluded, the Scottish Budget real terms increase over the period is 8.5 per cent, and local government have therefore been treated very fairly with council’s revenue funding having increased by 9.9 per cent in real terms.

We are aware that there is significant public interest in carrying out work to comply with the new standard for fire alarms in all Scottish homes. We are also aware that some retailers have short term supply issues, and may be affected by difficulties with imported components. Whilst we encourage homeowners to install these alarms at their earliest opportunity to protect lives and possessions, we have emphasised consistently that there will be no penalties for non-compliance and individual circumstances, including availability of suitable alarms, will be taken into account.

Policy relating to mobile telecommunications is currently reserved to the UK Government and is regulated by Ofcom.

However the Scottish Government recognises the vital importance of mobile connectivity for rural, remote and island communities and businesses. Through our Scottish 4G Infill Programme, we are investing £28.75M to deliver up to 55 4G masts in selected mobile ‘notspots’ around Scotland.

The Scottish Government continue work closely with the UK government and operators to ensure that resilience of the telecoms network in Scotland is a priority.

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.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05684 on 28 January 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 .

Budget allocations are agreed and published as part of the annual Scottish Budget process, with option fee income expected to be recognised over a number of years, to a maximum of ten years in line with the lease period.

To date a prudent estimate of ScotWind fees has been included in the 2022-23 budget of circa £41 million. The total figure will be finalised once leasing payment recognition has been confirmed.

These monies support the 2022-23 budget and underpin projects set out within the budget in line with the Programme for Government commitment to invest some of the ScotWind revenues to help tackle the twin crises of biodiversity and climate change as we transition to Net Zero.

As stated in the recent Programme for Government, some of the ScotWind revenues will be utilised for actions which tackle the twin crises of biodiversity and climate change, creating a legacy for the future, and some monies have already been identified to underpin projects in the 2022-23 budget in line with this commitment. Beyond these monies Scottish Ministers will consider carefully how the ScotWind revenues should be invested to maximise the benefits to the people of Scotland.

The Building (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2022 are currently being developed and expected to be laid in the Scottish Parliament on 31 March 2022. Supporting guidance contained in the technical handbooks will be published in the Spring.