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With a view to assessing the value for public money and the impact of our investment to date, we commissioned an independent evaluation of the impact of the fund in its first two years of operation. The report, which will be published shortly, emphasised the enabling role of the Fund in delivering a just transition to net zero in region.

Its findings indicate the Fund has created and safeguarded at least 230 jobs, opened up more than 750 training places via skills-focused projects and, attracted over £30 million in private investment and £4.7m in public and third sector investment from £43 million of initial JTF investment.

These are the initial impacts of the Fund and we are confident that job numbers, investment leverage and other key outputs will increase as projects continue.

Scotland has a strong record in attracting foreign direct investment and our Inward Investment Plan (IIP) plays a central role in supporting this by targeting key sectors such as high-value manufacturing and energy transition.

Responsibility for measuring Scotland’s inward investment performance, which includes planned jobs and supply chain impacts for involved projects, rests with Scottish Enterprise. The independent EY Attractiveness Survey and the DBT annual inward investment results provide an additional performance indicator for inward investment. Collectively the results, though based on different methodologies and published at different intervals during the year, help the Scottish Government build a broader understanding of Scotland’s inward investment performance.

Whilst the Scottish Government nor Scottish Enterprise holds specific data on manufacturing jobs created through inward investment at local authority level, information on how Scotland has performed in terms of attracting investment in key sectors is available via the EY attractiveness survey (the latest results can be found here: ey-uk-attractiveness-survey-scotland-06-2025.pdf and the Department for Business and Trade Inward Investment Results (the latest results can be found here: DBT inward investment results 2024 to 2025 - GOV.UK). Scottish Enterprise results will be published in the Autumn.

All information relating to determinations made by Scottish Ministers under the Electricity Act 1989, including any conditions, are publicly available on our Energy Consents website: https://www.energyconsents.scot/ApplicationSearch.aspx

NPF4 is a material consideration in the determination of applications, and it is read and applied as a whole. It is for the decision maker to determine what weight to attach to policies within NPF4 on a case-by-case basis. The weight to be applied to all material considerations and the need for conditions to be attached to any consent is a matter for the Minister taking the decision to consider on a case-by-case basis.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-38863 on 3 July 2025. 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.

School counselling services are available to all pupils aged 10 and over, including primary and special school pupils.

The Scottish Government engaged with professional counselling bodies prior to establishing counselling services who advised that therapeutic counselling is not appropriate for younger pupils.

Counselling is just one of a range of mental health supports available for children and young people.

We are also providing local authorities with £15 million per annum to fund community-based mental health and wellbeing supports for children, young people and their families, which includes younger primary-school-aged children.

The capital costs associated with Carbon Contracts will be paid for from the Environment and Forestry Directorate’s budget. It will not impact upon the Peatland Action budget in this financial year.

As a part of the Carbon Contracts pilot, Scottish Government intends to spend up to a total of £1m in capital.

As stated in the answer to question S6W-38508 on 18 June 2025, whilst Scottish Ministers are responsible for determining the strategic policy of the NHS in Scotland, NHS Boards are responsible for delivering their services, including making decisions to outsource NHS contracts to the independent sector where appropriate to meet the Board’s needs.

Scottish Government has committed to reduce the radiology backlog so that 95% of referrals are seen within six weeks by March 2026, through expanding to seven-day services, recruitment, and using mobile scanning units. More than £106 million has been allocated to NHS Boards in 25-26 to help address waits for procedures and operations, with £21 million for imaging.

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.

Amendment 38 to the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill, agreed to by the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee at Stage 2, lowered the threshold in relation to the land which community engagement obligations (the primary of these being the land management plans) may be imposed from 3,000 to 1,000 hectares. This aligns the thresholds for these provisions with those for the pre-notification and transfer test provisions, which relate to transfers of land. The threshold for pre-notification and transfer test provisions were already set at 1,000 hectares at Bill introduction.

To understand the impact of all the Bill's proposals on businesses, the Scottish Government conducted a Scottish firms impact test, involving engagement with landowners, land agents and representative organisations of land-based businesses. The assessment of the potential impacts of the Bill provisions applying to land over 1,000 hectares on a) transfers of land and b) costs for rural businesses can be found in the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill - Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment.

STPR2 forms the Scottish Government’s long term plans for future transport investment. It must be recognised that it is not possible to take forward all 45 STPR2 recommendations at the same time.