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The JTF has funded projects based on competitive bidding rounds, focused on delivering jobs and growth for the whole region. The Scottish Government has not made a specific commitment to allocate the JTF on a population-share basis between the council areas in the North East.

The full criteria for the competitive rounds of the Just Transition Fund have been published on the Scottish Government website. They are available to view at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/just-transition-fund/pages/overview/

Questions regarding day-to-day operational matters of Historic Environment Scotland, including queries relating to any Grant applications or eligibility, are best answered directly by Historic Environment Scotland.

I would suggest that Moray Council contact Historic Environment Scotland directly at grants@hes.scot to discuss the Spey Viaduct Bridge repair project and any potential funding options. Further information on Historic Environment Scotland’s Grant Schemes is available at https://www.historicenvironment.scot/grants-and-funding/.

Since declaring a national Housing Emergency in May 2024, I am proud that:

• This year the Affordable Housing Supply Programme will invest £808 million - an increase of more than £251 million on last year’s budget;
• Approvals for affordable housing between July-September are up by 61% compared to last year;
• £120 million targeted through our acquisitions fund is supporting the acquisition of at least 1,200 homes – helping to reduce homeless households in temporary accommodation;
• In 2026-27 we are investing at least £1.3 million towards the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership, ensuring that empty homes are brought back into use - building on our record investment of £5.7 million since 2010;
• We have helped an estimated 2,261 households with children into affordable housing in the year to end June 2025;
• Our action to keep rents lower than market rents benefits approximately 140,000 children in poverty each year and we have introduced provisions for a national system of evidence based rent control;
• Our draft budget for 2026/7 commits the single largest funding allocation to affordable housing since our records began in 1989 and our Spending Review, for the first time, offers multi-annual certainty for the coming four years;
• The draft Budget also commits an additional £4 million for action to prevent homelessness. This is in addition to £11.5 million for activities such as rapid rehousing and the Fund to Leave - as well as a further £23.5 million already baselined for Local Government; and
• We have worked to create the optimum conditions for investment including by setting an all-tenure target, developing clear exemptions from rent control for Mid-Market Rent and Build to Rent developments and by seeking an emergency-led approach from Local Authority Heads of Planning.

Together with our partners, so much has been achieved.

However our efforts to tackle the emergency have tested and exposed the limitations of the current housing delivery arrangement in Scotland. Ultimately, we must deliver more high quality, affordable homes, more quickly. We must simplify the landscape to achieve economy of scale savings; increase land and infrastructure support; and enable closer working with the private sector. The root and branch action demanded by this challenge requires us to think, and to act, in a radical way.

The First Minister will today announce the intention of the Scottish Government to create a new agency focused squarely and simply on accelerating housing delivery in Scotland. While extending its reach to all tenures, it will maintain an emphasis on affordable housing.

The agency will bring together housing, land, planning support and delivery expertise to simplify, scale and speed up the delivery of homes. Working with local authorities and Ministers through a joined-up model we will improve capacity, support regeneration and rural housing, and reduce duplication across government.

This tangible Government action in response to the Housing Emergency will take a Scotland wide all-tenure approach and focus on four pillars: affordable housing delivery, rural and island housing, land and development, and investment. It will also ensure we continue to deliver on the objectives set out in the Housing Emergency Action Plan and our Housing to 2040 strategy.

This new agency will help to drive forward the core government priorities of eradicating child poverty and growing our economy. It will also help to support first time buyers by increasing supply.

I will be working with experts across the housing sector, supported by COSLA and the Scottish National Investment Bank, to lead an initial design phase over the next two months to refine the operating model. This will allow us to carefully consider how this new agency optimises delivery while ensuring maximum value for money.

I intend to update Parliament in March, upon conclusion of the design phase but I am pleased to confirm the intention to announce, for simplicity, scale and speed: More Homes Scotland.

The National Eating Disorder Network are considering how to take forward the longer term recommendations of the National Review of Eating Disorder Services.

This includes building, implementing and evaluating a public health strategy for Scotland that makes eating disorder prevention everyone's business, including social media companies.

Keeping young people safe online is of paramount importance for the Scottish Government, and prevention is key. While regulation of the internet remains a reserved matter, we have successfully engaged with the UK Government on its Online Safety Act to strengthen protections for young people.

Ministers met Ofcom in August 2024 to emphasise the responsibility of tech firms to deliver effective safeguards for young people online, and in June 2025 to discuss ongoing implementation and regulation of the Online Safety Act and possible further action. The First Minister wrote directly to tech firms in 2024 to remind them of their responsibilities and Ministers have invited X, Meta, Snap Inc and TikTok to meet.

We will continue to engage with the UK Government and Ofcom on the implementation of this important piece of legislation and to press for stronger protections to help keep children and young people in Scotland safe online.

Eating disorder charity Beat promotes its services through existing partnerships with clinical services, carer organisations, Health Boards, universities, and education authorities. This financial year, we have provided over £600,000 to Beat.

For mental health more generally, we have invested £164 million in community-based mental health support for adults and children since 2020.

The Scottish Government welcomes Audit Scotland’s report and has asked the Collaborative Response and Assurance group, which is co-chaired by the Scottish Government and CoSLA to come together to consider these recommendations as a whole and develop a partnership approach to addressing them.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-42822 on 21 January 2026. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

We continue to see sustained progress on waiting times for CAMHS. The 18-week CAMHS standard has been met throughout the last year, with 91.5% of children and young people starting treatment within 18 weeks of referral, reflecting the commitment and hard work of the CAMHS workforce.

But we know there is more to do. Some young people and families are still waiting too long. We continue to work closely with all Boards, providing enhanced support where performance needs to improve, ensuring Boards have robust improvement plans in place to deliver results.

Our CAMHS Service specification, published in 2020, highlights that all children and young people should receive support that is appropriate to their individual needs. For many children and young people, such support is likely to be community based, and should be easily and quickly accessible.

That is why we continue to invest in community based mental health supports and services, including providing baselined funding of £15m per year in 2025-26. These services focus on prevention, early intervention, and promoting positive mental health, and offers an alternative to CAMHS where appropriate.

The Scottish Government and COSLA’s joint Suicide Prevention Action Plan 2026-29 will be published on the Scottish Government website on 22 January 2026 at 9am.

Building on progress and learning from delivering our first Action Plan, as well as insights from a range of stakeholders and partners including people with lived experience of suicide, this new 3-year Action Plan sets out the next phase of Scotland’s ambitious ten-year suicide prevention strategy, Creating Hope Together.

The Action Plan sets out measures to continue to reduce suicide deaths, address the inequalities that increase risk, and ensure anyone with thoughts of suicide can access timely, compassionate support and feel a sense of hope.

The Action Plan focuses on four priorities:

• Tackling the factors that can increase suicide risk and creating safer environments
• Building understanding about suicide and capability to respond across communities
• Ensuring access to timely and compassionate support which we know saves lives
• Strengthening foundations for effective delivery through improved data, evidence, and collaboration

A link to the Action Plan is attached below and will be live at 9am on 22 January 2026.

Suicide Prevention Action Plan 2026-29