Seòmar agus comataidhean

Decisions concerning future Scottish Government funding programmes will be considered and addressed through the Scottish Budget and Scottish Spending Review processes.

In my statement to Parliament on 2 September, I set out a suite of urgent actions to be taken in response to the housing emergency. Some of the measures to reduce homelessness include:

• Committing to a multi-annual, multi-billion pound affordable housebuilding project worth up to £4.9 billion over the next four years, capable of delivering up to 36,000 affordable homes or put another way, providing 24,000 children with a safe, warm and affordable home.
• Doubling investment in our immediate acquisitions fund from £40 million to £80 million this year. This will support the acquisition of at least 1,200 homes over the 18 months of the fund, helping families move out of temporary accommodation and into permanent tenancies without waiting on the construction of new homes.
• Investing a £3 million capital grant to expand Housing First and create new tenancies, alongside a £1 million uplift to local authorities to accelerate existing Housing First programmes.
• Extending rapid rehousing transition plan funding to 2026-27 to enable local authorities to prioritise settled housing for homeless households.
• Rolling out a £1 million new national ‘fund to leave’. This could help up to 1,200 women and their children to leave abusive relationships.
• Investing up to £2 million through the discretionary housing payments scheme to support households currently in temporary accommodation to find settled homes in the private rented sector. This is in addition to £97 million already being invested in discretionary housing payments in 2025-26 including £79m to mitigate the UK Government’s Bedroom Tax.

I called on partners across the housing sector and beyond to support work to accelerate the delivery of high-quality homes of all tenures, with a focus on the delivery of affordable and social homes. I have also set out the government’s expectation that local authorities, in compliance with ALACHO guidance, should contact every family in good quality temporary accommodation to explore opportunities to convert those temporary tenancies to permanent tenancies.

At this time, there are no defined plans to incorporate AI into the RP&S platform. The Agriculture Reform Programme is currently leading the development of a Future Operating Model for ARE which is carefully considering the capabilities required to deliver the Vision for Agriculture/policy objectives. This will include fully exploring the use of appropriate digital capabilities and technologies which can improve our services and the customer experience of our users however as stated at this time, there are no plans to incorporate AI into the RP&S platform.

The Scottish Government is currently developing plans for how the Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund allocation will be used to support digital inclusion in Scotland. We will work with stakeholders to ensure that delivery complements existing programmes and supports those most at risk of exclusion.

Further details on how we plan to allocate this funding will be announced in the coming months.

In the Highlands and Islands region, there are currently 9 Historic Environment Scotland sites which are temporarily closed. Within the Highlands and Islands region, there are no Historic Environment Scotland sites which are permanently closed.

The temporarily closed sites are:

Aberdeenshire Council:

Glenbuchat Castle

Huntly Castle

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar:

Kisimul Castle

Highland Council:

Castle of Old Wick

Moray Council:

Bishops House, Elgin

Dallas Dhu Distillery

Orkney Islands Council:

Eynhallow Church

Tormiston Mill

Shetland Islands Council:

Scalloway Castle

Any further queries from the member regarding the day-to-day operational matters of Historic Environment Scotland, including information relating to any repair and maintenance works of any specific site, are best answered directly by Historic Environment Scotland.

The Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) offers support for targeted land management options such as Moorland Management, which benefits a range of moorland habitats including peatland and upland heath. This option can complement the capital works delivered through Peatland ACTION. This enables land managers to access support for preparatory and post-restoration activities that safeguard long-term outcomes.

In addition to the £250 million committed to restore 250,000 hectares of degraded peatland by 2030, primarily through Peatland ACTION, over £3.8 million capital funding is estimated to have been provided through 327 contracts to benefit peatland restoration since AECS launched in 2015.

Additionally, from 1 January this year, new requirements have been added to the Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAECs) which farmers and crofters must meet to receive agricultural funding. This has prohibited a range of activities on peatlands and wetlands to prevent damage, in recognition of the important role they play in storing carbon.

The realisation of the Vision for Agriculture and the new four-tier framework will seek to strengthen alignment between our outcomes of nature restoration, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and a just transition, alongside continued high-quality food production.

To grow Scotland's economy, we must make full use of our potential workforce and remove barriers to employment.

The Scottish Government Statement on Creative Industries in 2019 did not include podcasting and audio as part of the Creative Industries sector.

Since the publication of that statement it is clear that consumers are now using both a wider range of devices to access media content as well as a larger variety of services.

Whilst there are no plans at present to revise the definition of the creative industries within Scotland the expanded, and continually innovating, variety of delivery channels will be a crucial factor to consider in any future work.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-40144 on 10 September 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.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-40144 on 10 September 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.