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It is vital that we capture that innovation and listen to those ideas. If there is a different way to make things work, it is important that we consider that. It was brilliant to visit Colonsay and see the impact of that project. As I touched on in a previous response, the issue is not a lack of employment. The company there—I think it is Mowi—is investing in homes on the island, and the partnership between the three bodies is critical. The housing on Colonsay is transformative. The challenges with housing hit home when listening to the community. A woman spoke passionately about that: her family had lived on Colonsay for generations, but she was living in a caravan because the majority of homes are second homes and that is shutting young people out of accommodation, even though ample job opportunities are available. That is an exciting initiative.

Wherever we can, we will work with communities and businesses on that—more communities are looking at what they can do to deliver affordable housing, which is important. I want to make sure that we capture that innovation and the different ideas, and that we listen to communities about what will work and what can be delivered in those areas.

Yes, the intention is that the draft plan will be published by the end of this year and available for consultation at that point.

Again, I would have to check that with housing policy officials.

We committed to investment worth £30 million over five years to support the islands programme. We delivered the first part of that—about £9.5 million of investment—last year, and the programme worked over three different strands: the infrastructure investment fund; the communities fund, which communities could bid into for grants of up to £150,000; and the healthy islands fund, which involved just over £1 million of funding for projects that would help to support the health and wellbeing of people on our islands.

We have taken some of the learning from that and have listened to our local authority colleagues in shaping what the programme will look like this year. I was at the committee for the budget session at the start of this year, when we announced £4 million of funding for the programme. This year, it will be different; it will be done on the basis of competitive bids to the fund. That is based on the feedback that we received.

As for projects, I have already talked a bit about the work done in Kerrera and the impact that we have seen there. We have also committed infrastructure fund money to the Fair Isle Bird Observatory, and the rest of the funding available as part of that was allocated to the different island authorities.

The officials might want to come in and talk about some of the other projects that have fed through the different strands of the fund.

You are absolutely right: there are undoubtedly challenges in that area, which is reserved to the UK Government. We continually engage with the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets to raise the significant issue of what are, essentially, penalties that we face in Scotland. We continue to raise that with Ofgem and the UK Government.

That is a really important point. We must continue to monitor that, because things have escalated and become worse even since the plan was published. That is why the monitoring of the plan and of the objectives and commitments that we have set out is important. The route map that we will publish shortly is also an important part of that process. It will set out in more detail the actions that we will take to meet the commitments in the plan.

We have regular communication about that in a couple of different forums. The national islands plan delivery group has been meeting quarterly to look at the route map. We are in constant discussion with that group, which is made up of local authorities and third sector and community representatives. There is also the islands strategic forum, where we engage with local authorities and their chief executives to talk about how we can work together to address challenges as they emerge. Through that regular engagement, we can identify emerging issues and try to address them.

We also have a number of different strategies. We passed the Fuel Poverty (Targets, Definition and Strategy) (Scotland) Act 2019 and we have a fuel poverty strategy. A variety of funds are in place to help those who are experiencing the worst fuel poverty. There is no doubt that people living in our island communities feel the pressure acutely, so it is important that we do everything that we can by working across Government to tackle those issues.

We have undertaken detailed engagement on the islands bond. We would not want it to duplicate or cut across other Government initiatives, as that would not make sense.

I will hand over to Erica Clarkson to provide more information on that.

As you can see from the strategic objectives that we have set out in the plan, it touches almost every other part of Government. An important part of my role in Government is engaging with my colleagues to ensure that our islands and rural areas are taken into account when policy is formed. Island community impact assessments, which were introduced under the landmark Islands (Scotland) Act 2018, are important in that respect. Such assessments are an obligation and a critical part of the process.

In addition, I engage with my ministerial colleagues on cross-cutting issues. I mentioned some of the groups that we have for continuous engagement. One of those is the islands strategic forum with local authorities. There will often be another minister there from the relevant policy area to discuss matters with local authorities and chief executives. It is important to have cross-portfolio working, whether in transport, health or housing. A variety of ministers have come along to previous meetings. Such engagement is critical. Ensuring that issues relating to islands are considered across other portfolios is a vital part of my role in Government.

I can jump in and answer anyway.

Now that we are out of the EU, that engagement is a bit more difficult. We are not members, so we do not have exactly the same connections or involvement that we would like to have had and to maintain. However, we still look to engage closely with our European neighbours, particularly on issues such as the ones that we have been discussing, which affect us all. I know that there will be similar challenges in other parts of the EU.

As we have talked about in previous responses, we do not want to reinvent the wheel. It is important to look at what is happening elsewhere and to engage with our European counterparts. As an example, the 26th United Nations climate change conference of the parties—COP26—was a great forum; I took part in an islands event and engaged with my equivalent ministers in other Administrations in Europe and further afield to talk about how to address the similar challenges that we face. That continuing engagement is really important in allowing us to see what learning we can take from one another.

Francesco would like to come in.

It is disappointing to hear that theme come out of the survey. We want to encourage people and young islanders to return to and live and work in our island communities. A few different issues come out of the survey: we have an ageing population, and younger working-age people move away and do not return. It is important that we do what we can to address those issues.

Various initiatives are under way in relation to student retention. We have to tackle issues such as the lack of affordable housing and connectivity, whether that be transport or digital. We need to make it as easy as possible for people who want to come to live and work in our island communities. It is important that we address those multifaceted issues.