Here are the top business stories making the headlines in the morning newspapers.

Scottish budget approved

MSPs yesterday voted to approve the Scottish Government's budget for the coming financial year.

The plans include an income tax rise for everyone in Scotland earning more than £43,662.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney said his 2023/24 proposals would help people who had been worst affected by the cost-of-living crisis.

But the Scottish Conservatives said the SNP was widening the tax differentials with the rest of the UK.

The BBC
says MSPs voted by 68 to 57 to pass the budget bill.

During a debate in the Scottish Parliament, Mr Swinney also announced an extra £100million in funding for Scottish councils.

This came after extra funding was received from the UK Government.

Hunt insists 'no tax cuts'

UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has insisted there is no room for tax cuts in his March Budget, despite a sharp improvement in the public finances and plummeting power costs.

The Telegraph
says there is pressure from Conservative backbenchers and business leaders to ease the tax burden, which is at a 70-year high.

Helicopter damaged by storm


A helicopter has been left stranded onboard TotalEnergies' Elgin platform after storm winds ripped off several of its rotor blades.

The Airbus H175 operated by Offshore Helicopter Services UK suffered severe damage during Storm Otto, which last week left thousands of homes without power and grounded dozens of offshore flights.

While the aircraft was parked on the helipad, the storm snapped off three of its five blades close to where they meet the main rotor mast.

Energy Voice
says the extent of the damage means the airframe will require airlifting back to Aberdeen to be repaired.

Reinstatement of international mail


International mail services have finally been reinstated at UK post offices, more than a month after Royal Mail was hit by a cyber attack.

The breach on January 10 caused a backlog that led to long delays for consumers and businesses.

Most services had been restored online, but remained unavailable at 11,500 Post Office branches.

Royal Mail said it was now processing "close to normal daily volumes" of international mail with "some delays".

The BBC
says a ransomware group named Lockbit linked to Russia claimed responsibility for the cyber attack.

Landmark legal challenge against Google

Google could be forced to take responsibility for videos that its subsidiary YouTube recommends to its users if a landmark legal challenge against the internet giant succeeds in America's top court.

The company yesterday defended itself in a Supreme Court hearing, the culmination of a years-long legal campaign from the family of a victim of the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks who say that YouTube recommended extremist content to users.

Defeat for Google would threaten a legal shield that search engines and social networks have used for 27 years to avoid liability for illegal videos, messages and pictures on their services.

The Telegraph
says the section 230 law broadly grants immunity to websites that host and manage content uploaded by users.

China buying more Russian oil

China is getting record amounts of oil from Russia as the world's second-largest economy soaks up supplies shunned by the West.

The country imported 1.66million barrels of crude and fuel oil from Russia each day on average in January, according to Kpler data.

It was the highest level of imports since Russia's invasion of Ukraine a year ago, which triggered huge disruption to global oil markets.

The stepping up of purchases by China comes as its economy rebounds following the lifting of Covid restrictions at the end of last year.

The Telegraph
says Beijing is also taking advantage of the substantial discount on Russian oil following Western sanctions.

Jobs to go at British Steel?

British Steel is expected to announce today the closure of its coking ovens in Scunthorpe with the loss of 300 jobs.

The timescale for the closure is unclear, as is how many compulsory redundancies it will involve.

The closure of the coking ovens is seen as a worrying indicator about the health of the UK steel industry.

Union officials told the BBCthat the industry "is on a knife edge".

Regulator wants energy customers compensated

Energy firms should start compensating customers whose homes were wrongfully fitted with a prepayment meter without waiting for the results of a major review, the regulator has stated.

Ofgem chief executive Jonathan Brearley said companies must review their own meter installations immediately.

A six-week pause in forced prepayment fittings lasts until the end of March. The BBC says this came after debt agents for British Gas broke into vulnerable people's homes to force-fit meters.

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