Chamber and committees

It is to clarify an issue, convener. You said that Scottish ministers were not involved in the original decision to lend. Were reassurances received either directly from ministers or via CSL that the scheme would go ahead that might have influenced you, for example, in considering the second draw down?

I was interested to hear what you were saying to Maggie Chapman about the importance of geographic and rural distribution. As a Highlands and Islands MSP, I know that that is very important to my region. The broadband issue brought up nicely the question that I was going to ask. You are obviously supporting a roll-out, as is Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the Scottish Government and the UK Government. There are lots of different organisations involved, so co-ordination and working together are key. In what one of my colleagues and others have described as the cluttered landscape of public lenders, how do you make sure that that co-ordination, collaboration and working together are done? There needs to be work done with local authorities as well—there are so many organisations out there. How do you make sure that that is done?

I would be grateful if you could provide the information on the money being drawn down.

Good morning, and congratulations on your appointment to your new role, Mr Denholm. I have a number of questions. I will make them quite quick—some are just for information.

You have referred to the money as a debt facility, but also as a loan. Is it the straightforward case that the £9 million is with Circularity Scotland? Was it money that it could draw down on or has it all gone to it?

Is there any from other organisations that you have been involved with?

Monday?

You have a number of older cases open, and I think that you have covered how you are looking to clear some of that backlog. You probably will not hit 100 per cent, but when do you expect to have cleared the majority of those cases?

Are you confident that you will achieve that?

Therefore, those cases are not urgent. There will not be much of an impact, in the sense that the cases that are being left are historical cases.

On that, it is important to engage with your customers and look for that feedback, particularly on the business side, but across all sides. I think that there are 2,435 cases open from 2007. You would expect that a higher proportion of those customers might be less satisfied—let us put it positively—than is the case for the 20,598 cases that are open from 2019. I take it that you would expect a higher proportion of customers with those earlier cases to be dissatisfied because of the time that has passed, so why do you not collect that information?