Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is represented on the UK Council for Child Internet Safety, where all aspects of internet safety are discussed, including cyberbullying. The Council brings together over 170 organisations and individuals from government, industry, law enforcement, academia and charities – including representing parents and children. Their aim is to work in partnership to keep children and young people safe online.

The police recorded crime data collected centrally is based on an aggregate return from each of the eight police forces in Scotland and is published in the annual Recorded Crime in Scotland statistical bulletin.

Whilst the term cyberbullying is not a specific offence in itself, cyberbullying would be recorded by the police as an offence under the relevant legislation, depending on the nature of the offence itself. As such, cyberbullying may be recorded under different crime and offence codes included within the classification system used centrally and may not be identifiable separately.

Information held centrally on the number of racist incidents recorded by the police cannot identify whether the incident involved an online element.

The 2012-13 Scottish Crime and Justice Survey, however, includes a new section on harassment. This will provide an estimate of how many people have been insulted, pestered or intimidated in the last 12 months by anybody who is not a member of their household. The survey will also establish whether there was any racial motive for the harassment and the means by which individuals were harassed, including (as separate categories) via texts or e-mail, or in writing via the internet, such as a social networking site. Subject to sample sizes, results will be available from November 2013 and will cover the adult (16 and over) population only.

Decisions on allocating funding are a matter for individual police authorities/joint boards together in discussion with their chief constables. It will therefore be for them to decide the level of funding to be made available to address cyberbullying.

Online safety in Scotland is monitored by the Scottish Government led Stakeholder Group on Child Internet Safety. The group last met on 14 March 2012 and includes representation from the police. The issue of cyberbullying is discussed regularly.

The single outcome agreements that each of the 32 Community Planning Partnerships enter into with the Scottish Government are expected to focus on priority areas set by the Scottish Government, which include supporting sustainable economic growth.

The local outcomes approach, which underpins the single outcome agreement framework, is empowering local partners to work closely together and cultivate local conditions which are conducive to promoting sustainable economic growth. Community Planning Partnerships are doing this in a range of ways which reflect distinctive local conditions and priorities. These include supporting businesses, promoting business start-ups, enhancing the skills and qualifications of the local population, supporting employment opportunities for local citizens and developing the infrastructure to support local economic development.

The Scottish Government will continue to work with our local authority partners to provide the necessary support to businesses across Scotland, enabling them to create employment opportunities. As an example of the support we are providing, on 18 March we announced that £9 million will be made available to six local authorities to help them to tackle youth unemployment. The council areas have been identified by the Scottish Government as having particular challenges with youth employment based on the youth unemployment rate and the number of young people unemployed in the area. Individual authorities will have flexibility on how best to direct the additional investment, with schemes such as employer incentives or additional training opportunities, and ministers will continue to work with local authorities to best target and deliver for young people.

There are a number of statutory offences which may be used to prosecute people who misuse the internet for harassment, including the offences of “threatening and abusive behaviour” (Section 38 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010), “stalking” (section 39 of the 2010 Act) and “Improper use of public electronic communications network” (Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003). In addition to these statutory offences, the common law offences of breach of the peace and threats may be used to prosecute such behaviour. Extreme forms of internet based bullying, or “cyberbullying”, which amount to criminal behaviour could be prosecuted in the same way.

All responses will be accepted. Respondents can indicate on the Respondent Information Form if they wish to remain anonymous. Any response submitted without a Respondent Information Form will also be treated as anonymous.

Ministers regularly meet with trades union leaders to discuss issues relating to training and learning. I hosted the Trades Union Working Party on Lifelong Learning on Tuesday 27 March 2012. The government’s Youth Employment Strategy was on the agenda and the issue of work experience was discussed. It was agreed that government and trade unions would work together to produce good practice guidelines.

The Scottish Government will finalise the Youth Employment Strategy for publication in the spring of 2012.