I'm due to have my HU replaced under warrenty next week and, would like to think that the new one will have a nwer version of the firmware installed.

Is there a way of seeing what firmware version is loaded without access to Vagcomm? I've pressed Menu to see the diag info, but that doesn't show firmware version.

In theory, as long as the car has been serviced at a skoda dealer your current headunit should have the latest firmware anyway because it should have been flashed by the dealer as part of the service. My audience was flashed twice by the dealer, once at each service.