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We review YouthLink Scotland’s No Knives, Better Lives programme regularly to consider how it can continue to help prevent violence and reduce its harm. Part of this work has included the creation of the Quit Fighting for Likes Campaign, developed by the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, YouthLink Scotland No Knives, Better Lives and Medics Against Violence. Launched on 11 September 2024, the campaign provides a suite of resources aimed at frontline practitioners to help engage young people in conversations to help them understand the impact and harms caused around the filming and sharing of violent incidents.

The campaign, including the accompanying practitioner resources, remain available to access on the websites of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit and YouthLink Scotland No Knives, Better Lives. It is intended that the campaign will be re-run again after the school summer holidays.

The implementation phase of the Nursing and Midwifery Taskforce has now begun, and two Implementation Delivery Groups are being established to oversee swift delivery of all 44 recommended actions. One group, chaired by the Interim Chief Nursing Officer, will meet at the end of February and then recurrently every 6 - 8 weeks. A further Implementation Delivery Group will be chaired by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and will meet in Spring and then every six months. These two Groups will ensure that priorities are clearly defined, progress is measurable, and key milestones are met. A detailed work plan and timeline to guide the delivery of the recommended actions will be agreed in Spring.

Affordable housing has a clear priority in this year’s Programme for Government. We are investing nearly £600 million in affordable housing in 2024-2025, which includes the additional £40 million capital for acquisitions and voids announced earlier this year. The 2025-2026 draft budget of £768 million is an increase of over £200 million when compared to the current financial year’s original published budget and reinforces our commitment to delivering affordable housing.

In the year to September 2024, Official Statistics: Housing statistics quarterly update: new housebuilding and affordable housing supply - gov.scot show an 8% decline in new build starts through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) and an 8% decline in all starts through the AHSP. We remain focused on delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, with at least 70% of these for social rent and 10% in rural and island areas, including new build, rehabilitation and acquisitions. We continue to work with partners to increase the delivery of more affordable homes, the majority of which will be for social rent, including supporting acquisitions of existing properties. This includes meeting the existing commitment to the targeted use of £80 million for acquisitions and voids over this and next year.

We have also committed £100 million over the longer term to grow institutional investment to at least £500 million and support the construction of around 2,800 mid-market rent homes.

Since 2007, we have supported the delivery of more than 135,000 affordable homes, over 95,000 of which were for social rent, including 26,000 council homes. Of these, between 23 March 2022 and end of September 2024, we have delivered 24,382 affordable homes towards the 110,000 target, of which over 18,000 have been homes for social rent. We continue to work closely with partners to deliver the right homes in the right places.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

However, I have contacted the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland who maintains the property registers in Scotland. They have searched the registers and identified 783 titles that narrate a rural housing burden.

A more detailed breakdown of these figures can be requested directly via Registers of Scotland.

I have raised concerns with the UK Treasury about the impact on public services if this reserved tax increase is not fully funded. The Scottish Government has published updated estimates of the impact of the increase in employer national insurance contributions on the public sector in Scotland. These estimates indicate the combined impact on the public sector and commissioned services is over £700 million. If the UK Government’s reported allocation is all that is provided, the Chancellor will be short-changing services the public depend on by over £400 million. The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations estimates that the third sector in Scotland will face additional costs of £75 million per year, plus wider inflation.

The budget for 2025-26 proposes planned investment of £768 million in the Affordable Housing Supply Programme, an increase of more than £200m compared to the 2024-25 published budget. This will help tackle the housing emergency while contributing towards our target of delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032 of which at least 70% will be social rented homes.

The 2025-2026 budget will help fund the completion of existing new build and rehabilitation project commitments as well as new project approvals, including our targeted £40m voids and acquisitions commitment, and new build site starts.

We have also committed £100 million over the longer term to grow institutional investment to at least £500 million and support the construction of around 2,800 mid-market rent homes.

The Housing Investment Taskforce is progressing its identified priority workstreams so that we can make sure that Scotland has the right conditions to enable investment to flow and deliver the homes that people need. The Taskforce is due to report by the end of March 2025.

National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) has introduced a more positive, plan-led and all-tenure approach to deliver quality homes, where they are needed and strengthens planning policy for affordable homes, requiring ‘at least 25%’ of the total number of homes on a site to be affordable. This can be varied where either there is greater need or where it may affect the viability of sites coming forward.

As the statutory housing authority for their area, local authorities are responsible for assessing housing need and demand, and for setting out how this will be met through their Local Housing Strategies and Strategic Housing Investment Plans (SHIPs). SHIPs set out local authority strategic investment priorities over a five year period and inform Scottish Government investment decisions.

We continue to work closely with partners to deliver the right homes in the right places across Scotland and since 2007, we have supported the delivery of more than 135,000 affordable homes, over 95,000 of which were for social rent, including over 26,000 council homes. Within this, between 23 March 2022 and end of September 2024, we have delivered 24,382 affordable homes towards the 110,000 target, of which over 18,000 have been homes for social rent.

The Scottish Government regularly publishes figures on homes delivered, which can be found online at:

Housing statistics quarterly update: new housebuilding and affordable housing supply - gov.scot

I am aware of the recently reported worrying that is doing the rounds and that leading up to lambing I will once again be reminding people of their obligations to understand the responsibilities they have when in the countryside with dogs.

The worrying of livestock by dogs is completely unacceptable and is something the Scottish Government takes very seriously, recognising the distress and the serious welfare and financial implications it causes.

That is why we supported the introduction of the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill, which came into force on 5 November 2021.

The Scottish Access code is quite clear as to what is considered responsible behaviour when dog walking in the countryside. I would encourage people to familiarise and remind themselves of the Scottish Outdoor Access Code and to exercise caution and vigilance when in and around farms and fields with livestock to help prevent livestock worrying incidents.

Please see the data below from both the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) and the Scottish Government’s Justice Analytical Service. Please note that The Dogs (Protection of Livestock) (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2021 came into force on 5 November 2021. The 2021 Act amends the offence under the 1953 Act so all proceedings are still under the 1953 Act (as amended).

Table 1: Charges reported to Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) under:-Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953 S1(1)&(6)-Worry livestock on a farm – attack.

Detailed below is a table containing Freight Facilities Grant awards linked to the development of intermodal transport facilities with the commodities that were removed from being transported by container from road onto rail or water instead.

The Freight Facilities Grants (FFG) is intended to bring about a number of benefits from the removal of freight from roads to other modes of transport. This includes but is not limited to emissions reduction.

Since the introduction of Freight Facilities Grant in 1997, the Scottish Government has received no applications for an inland waterways project.