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There was a suggestion that, in the summer just past, there was a large increase in the number of staycations; so, people might have been spending less, but there were more of them. That was partially due to the weak pound making foreign holidays more expensive, travel disruption and so on. What impact did staycationers have on businesses, and did Scotland get a share of the estimated £26 million from staycationers?

How is the industry planning going forward? Does it imagine that the constraints on consumer spending will be on-going for a long time, or is it hoping that the situation will change in a shorter time? What impact will that situation have on the industry?

I want to ask you about the impact of the cost of living and what the outlook is. Leon Thompson, you touched on the fact that hospitality is a very broad area that covers pubs, restaurants, cafes, travel and tourism businesses as well as entertainment venues. The cost of living crisis is reducing the amount of leisure spend that people have. Is it having the same impact across all the different areas in the hospitality sector or are some benefiting?

Good morning. I want to ask about grant funding. Carolyn, you carried out some research into the pandemic funding and you have highlighted that women-led businesses formed 16 per cent of recipients of funding from the hospitality hardship fund and 10 per cent of recipients of funding from the resilience fund. For clarity, do you have the percentages for those two funds that relate to businesses that are equally led by men and women?

Do the percentages for the pandemic funding that you have highlighted reflect the wider grant funding that is available for women-led businesses? I am thinking of the self-employed income support scheme and indeed the grants that are issued by Scottish Enterprise.

Was part of the problem the lack of targeting of sectors where women have substantial numbers of businesses? Looking at the UK numbers, we can see that a lot of female-led businesses are in health, education and hospitality. Was there enough targeting of funding to those areas or is it the case that, as you have highlighted, a lot of women were just not aware that the funding was available?

I have a side question that relates to Jamie Halcro Johnston’s questions about rurality. I was looking through the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report for Scotland and it highlights that, in the Highlands and Islands, the number of female start-ups was higher than the number of male start-ups. Is that because, as you said, there is no alternative, or is something else happening in the Highlands and Islands that we need to reflect on?

Good morning, cabinet secretary. I will ask you about project gigabit. The UK Government’s £5 billion was set aside for the hardest-to-reach 20 per cent of the population. The UK Parliament Public Accounts Committee highlighted in a report that the UK Government Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport had allocated only £1.2 billion of that £5 billion, had not awarded any new contracts and

“wanted to ensure that taxpayer money was not wasted, and that public funding was used only when absolutely needed.”

Do you share the Public Accounts Committee’s concern that the UK Government’s approach to rolling out project gigabit

“risks perpetuating digital inequality across the UK”?

Regarding that figure of £7,000, the Public Accounts Committee said that rural and remote areas should receive

“significantly increased investment on the basis that the commercial sector will be unlikely to be able to fill the gap.”

Given that we need to significantly increase the investment in order to cover the hardest-to-reach 20 per cent, what discussions have you had with the UK Government recently about that? Is there any sign of movement on the issue?

Do you have any views on VAT?