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The information requested is not held centrally. Pupil Equity Funding of over £520 million over the next four years is providing additional support to 97% of schools across Scotland, empowering our head teachers and teachers who know their children best. As outlined in the answer to parliamentary question S6T-00784, the majority of the £634 million in PEF distributed to schools is invested in approaches to improving literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing through the recruitment of additional teaching and support staff, family link workers and partnerships with third sector organisations.

Where there are projects involving Police Scotland in place, schools find those to be of great benefit. They are highly engaged in proactive and preventative work in communities with families, working alongside social work and third sector organisations. They are not policing in schools.

To be clear, the £2 million described is a very small proportion—just 0.3 per cent—of the pupil equity funding that has been distributed to schools across the 32 councils since 2017-18.

As stated in the answer given to PQ S6W-09389, the Scottish Government has had no specific discussions about this issue with these local authorities. It is for headteachers to decide on how to spend Pupil Equity Funding, based on their local contexts and working in partnership with each other, and their local authority, to agree the use of the funding.

As outlined in the Pupil Equity Fund national operational guidance, any school plans for using Pupil Equity Funding must be grounded in evidence of what is known to be effective at closing the poverty related attainment gap. Local authorities can also issue complementary guidance about how the funding will operate locally . Local authorities also have a role in supporting school improvement through providing assistance to schools and partners by supporting and challenging schools in their use of PEF to make progress in improving the health and wellbeing and educational outcomes of children and young people impacted by poverty.

The Scottish Government’s intervention in March 2016 was designed to ensure that steel communities in Scotland had a future. The benefits of the intervention are manifest in the high-quality steel products that continue to be produced in Lanarkshire, the skilled employment retained and the economic multiplier effects that accrue via ongoing payments to suppliers and the circulation of income through the local economy. Tata Steel, Liberty House and the Scottish Government were all aligned in agreeing a transaction that secured the earliest realisation of the commercial and wider economic benefits of the deal, and the selected structure was the best available means to deliver this.

The three parties to the sale and purchase of the Lanarkshire steelworks on 2016 – Tata Steel, Liberty House and the Scottish Government – were all aligned in agreeing a transaction that secured the earliest realisation of the commercial and wider economic benefits of the deal, and the selected structure was the best available means to deliver this. Following negotiation the particular commercial requirements of each party are captured in the transaction documentation.

The police investigation is ongoing and direction of that investigation is provided by lawyers in the Specialist Casework Division in Crown Office.

The Crown does not routinely collate the total costs associated with investigating individual cases and thus does not hold the information requested.

The Lord Advocate is responsible for the investigation and prosecution of all criminal matters which occur in Scotland. Where a matter requires investigation, this is undertaken by COPFS on behalf of the Lord Advocate. The Crown provides advice, support and direction to investigators from Police Service of Scotland, throughout the course of the investigation.

The criminal investigation by the Police Service of Scotland is ongoing. This is a complex and challenging investigation. Evidence has had to be sought and obtained from a number of different countries outwith the United Kingdom with a view to considering whether there is evidence of any potential offences over which the Scottish courts have jurisdiction.

As Lord Advocate, I am responsible for the investigation and prosecution of all criminal matters which occur in Scotland. Where a matter requires investigation, this is undertaken by COPFS on behalf of the Lord Advocate. The Crown provides advice, support and direction to investigators from Police Service of Scotland, throughout the course of the investigation.

The investigation is ongoing. The Crown does not provide information about the evidential position in ongoing investigations, with a view to maintaining confidence in the integrity and confidentiality of the Crown’s functions, including confidence on the part of those who provide, or may provide, information to the Crown.

Education authorities have duties under the Education (Additional Support for Learning) Act (2004) to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their pupils. This includes needs arising from the disruption caused by the mobility and deployment of a parent or carer in the Armed Forces and would include mental health and/or pastoral supports as appropriate.

We continue to support children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing through the provision of counselling through schools. This is now in place across secondary schools in Scotland. We have also introduced new guidance to support whole school approaches to mental health and wellbeing, complementing the work that education authorities and schools already do to support children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing.

Children of service personnel in Scotland will have their needs met by the supports outlined above and as such there are no plans to introduce a Service Pupil Premium.

PEF National Operational Guidance is intended to help schools plan how they will most effectively invest their Pupil Equity Funding allocation to improve the educational outcomes of children affected by poverty. Local authorities also issue complementary guidance about how the funding will operate locally.

The PEF National Operational guidance includes key principles which state that ‘Headteachers must develop a clear rationale for use of funding, based on a robust contextual analysis of relevant data which identifies the poverty-related attainment gap in their schools.’ Schools must also have plans in place at the outset to evaluate the impact of the funding. These plans should outline clear outcomes to be achieved and how progress towards these, and the impact on closing the poverty-related attainment gap, will be measured.

To be clear, this should be done within existing local authority reporting processes to their Parent Council and Forum, including in their annual School Improvement Plans and Standards and Quality Reports. These plans and reports must be made publicly available so that parents and carers can easily access, understand and where appropriate, challenge, what is happening in their school with regard to Pupil Equity Funding. The arrangements for publication are confirmed by the relevant local authority.

One specific example of the effectiveness of collaboration with the Police can be found in Education Scotland’s ‘Pupil Equity Funding: Looking inwards, outwards, forwards’ publication. It cites evidence from Eastbank Academy in Glasgow where the school reports that a PEF-funded partnership with Police Scotland has contributed to increased participation and engagement of identified young people. A link to that publication can be found here: Pupil Equity Funding: Looking inwards, outwards, forwards (education.gov.scot)

A key principle of the refreshed 2022 Pupil Equity Funding National Operational Guidance states that: ‘Teachers, parents and carers, children and young people and other key stakeholders should be meaningfully involved throughout the processes of planning, implementing and evaluating approaches.’

Headteachers are accountable to their local authority for the use of Pupil Equity Funding within their school. We have been clear that schools should consult and engage effectively with teachers, parents and carers, children and young people and the wider community when implementing approaches to closing the poverty-related attainment gap.

To ensure transparency, schools are expected to incorporate details of their Pupil Equity Funding plans and explicitly report on the impact on outcomes for learners impacted by poverty. This should be done within existing local authority reporting processes to their Parent Council and Forum, including in their annual School Improvement Plans and Standards and Quality Reports. These plans and reports must be made publicly available so that parents and carers can easily access, understand and where appropriate, challenge, what is happening in their school with regard to Pupil Equity Funding. The arrangements for publication should be confirmed by the relevant local authority.