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The Scottish Government launched ‘A National Approach to Anti-Bullying for Scotland’s Children and Young People’ in 2010. The national approach forms part of our wider attempts to improve the health and wellbeing of our children and young people. It fits in with our ongoing work to ensure children and young people feel safe and secure and are able to build up strong and positive relationships with their peers and with adults, as well as our work to promote positive behaviour.

Following many legislative and policy developments since the publication of the national approach, a working group was established in January 2015 to refresh the guidance. The purpose of the refreshed national approach is to communicate and promote a common vision and aims to make sure that work across all sectors and communities is consistently and coherently contributing to a holistic approach to anti-bullying in Scotland.

Following extensive consultation with children and young people, parents and carers and practitioners, the revised national approach will be published in spring 2016.

The resource and accounting budget charge for 2016-17 is expected to be between 29% and 31%.

The resource and accounting budget (RAB charge), estimated each year, forecasts repayments of student loans for all existing borrowers, as well as future borrowers. The model draws on demographics to calculate a repayment profile and a write off element, which combined provide the RAB charge. The repayment profile calculates the time and rate of repayment, whereas the write off estimates the amount that will never be recovered. The current RAB charge represents a percentage of every £1 lent.

The current estimated RAB charge for Scotland is 29%, meaning that for every £1 lent through the student loan scheme, the Scottish Government can expect to recoup 71 pence. The Scottish Government modelled the impact of increasing the student loan repayment threshold to £21,000 based on 2014-15 data, which produced an estimated RAB charge of 33%.

The most recent statistics on fuel poverty were published in December 2015 (Scottish House Condition Survey: Key Findings 2014 http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/12/8460) and do not show an increase in fuel poverty between 2013 and 2014. The Scottish House Condition Survey 2012-2014 publication is based on a different time period to the national report. It is based on three year rolling averages to ensure reasonable sample sizes for local authority analysis and is therefore not designed to measure year-on-year change. Given the small sample sizes and overlapping samples, the local authority results in this publication do not show a statistically significant increase in fuel poverty and extreme fuel poverty between 2011-13 and 2012-14 for any local authority area.

Since 2009 we have allocated half a billion pounds to help tackle fuel poverty across all tenures across all of Scotland. The variety of schemes under the Home Energy Efficiency Programmes for Scotland (HEEPS) banner gives households a wider range of support than ever before. Within HEEPS, and alongside our Area Based Schemes, we have made available interest free loans of up to £10,000 for energy efficiency measures, and in 2015 we launched our new flagship national fuel poverty scheme Warmer Homes Scotland, which is expected to help around 28,000 of the poorest and most vulnerable households across Scotland during its lifetime.

Going forward, we have designated energy efficiency as a national infrastructure priority and are committed to developing Scotland’s Energy Efficiency Programme. The new programme will provide an offer of support to buildings across Scotland to improve their energy efficiency over the next 15-20 years helping to tackle fuel poverty by making Scotland’s homes more affordable to run as well as helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. During this first development phase we are working with stakeholders to develop the programme including pilot projects with local authorities to test new and innovative approaches to delivering energy efficiency projects that integrate action on domestic and non-domestic energy efficiency. The new programme will take forward standards and introduce regulatory frameworks that give certainty to consumers and make it as easy as possible and the norm to invest in energy efficiency.

Preparations are underway to allow work to begin immediately after the formation of the new government in May 2016. A specific date will be agreed with review group representatives.

The results from the Scottish House Condition Survey 2012-2014 for (a) the Highland and Islands (b) Orkney do not show a statistically significant increase in fuel poverty and extreme fuel poverty between 2011-13 and 2012-14. However, the Scottish Government is committed to tackling fuel poverty. We have allocated £103 million to tackle fuel poverty and energy efficiency in 2016-17, which will be used to help install energy efficiency measures, including solid wall insulation, in 14,000 homes, building on the more than 900,000 measures delivered since 2008.

The new Warmer Homes Scotland scheme is delivered on a regional basis (including a separate island region) to ensure that all households, including those living in more remote parts of the country receive the same level of service as those in urban areas. In addition, since 2013 the maximum grant available through our Area Based Scheme to households in very remote rural areas (including all island communities) has risen by almost 40% to £9,000.

Supply teachers are employed by local authorities and the Scottish Government does not hold any data relating to the costs incurred.

The most recent statistics on fuel poverty were published in December 2015 (Scottish House Condition Survey: Key Findings 2014 http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/12/8460) and do not show an increase in fuel poverty between 2013 and 2014. The Scottish House Condition Survey 2012-2014 publication is based on a different time period to the national report. It is based on three year rolling averages to ensure reasonable sample sizes for local authority analysis and is therefore not designed to measure year-on-year change. Given the small sample sizes and overlapping samples, the local authority results in this publication do not show a statistically significant increase in fuel poverty and extreme fuel poverty between 2011-13 and 2012-14 for any local authority area.

Local authorities have been key delivery partners for a number of our fuel poverty programmes, including the Home Insulation Scheme, Universal Home Insulation Scheme and Home Energy Efficiency Programmes for Scotland: Area Based Schemes. The Scottish Government will continue to work closely with them. This year the majority of the Scottish Government budget for fuel poverty and energy efficiency programmes is directed at the Area Based Schemes which are delivered by all 32 of Scotland’s local authorities and prioritise fuel poor areas, providing a range of insulation measures for private sector properties. Enabling funding is also provided to councils to assist in developing schemes and engage with householders.

We are listening to a wide range of stakeholders as we develop our approach on tackling fuel poverty. We have set up the short term Fuel Poverty Strategic Working Group to work alongside the Scottish Fuel Poverty Forum and the Scottish Rural Fuel Poverty Task Force to build on our efforts to date and drive forward the fuel poverty agenda. Charities including Energy Action Scotland, Age Scotland, the Poverty Alliance and the Child Poverty Action Group are represented on these groups, as are other public bodies, including NHS Scotland.

We are also supporting (via loan funding) Our Power, the UK’s first fully licensed non-profit distributing energy supplier. Our Power has been established by a consortium of registered social landlords to supply their tenants with energy on a tariff that is lower than the equivalent offered by the major suppliers. This should help increase competition in the energy supply market and be of particular benefit to a group of consumers which is particularly vulnerable to fuel poverty.