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The Scottish Government’s Ferries Plan 2013-2022, stated that we are willing to assume responsibility for all lifeline ferry services in Scotland, should the authority currently responsible wish to transfer and subject to agreement being reached on the terms of a transfer. Following an approach made in 2016 by Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) to Transport Scotland, I agreed in principle to the transfer of responsibility for the Gourock-Kilcreggan ferry service from SPT to Transport Scotland.

Transport Scotland and SPT are working together in order to establish a mutual agreement on the formal terms of the transfer. This is a complex process given the amount of information being considered, which includes service levels, finances and infrastructure. SPT have recently announced an award of a new contract for the service which ensures continuation of the Gourock-Kilcreggan service whilst negotiations are ongoing.

We expect the STAG report from our consultants by the end of February and hope to be able to make a decision on the mainland port as soon as possible thereafter.

This Government wants every child and young person in Scotland to grow up free from bullying and to develop respectful, responsible and confident relationships. Bullying of any kind is unacceptable and must be addressed quickly, whenever it arises.

Incidents of bullying are not recorded at a national level. Bullying incidents are recorded and monitored at a local level. This enables establishments to identify where improvements can be made to support the wellbeing of all children and young people. This allows organisations to ensure that an appropriate response and follow up actions have been made. This information helps organisations monitor the effectiveness of their policies and practice, review and improve where appropriate and also help identify professional learning opportunities.

We have established and wholly fund respectme, a national anti-bullying service, to build confidence and capacity to address bullying effectively, aligned to the National Approach to Anti-bullying for Scotland's Children and Young People. respectme provide direct support to local authorities, schools, youth groups and all those working with children and young people.

The refreshed National Approach to Anti-Bullying, which is due to be published later this year, will take an holistic approach to addressing bullying. The refreshed guidance makes clear of the role of all adults and children and young people in preventing and dealing with bullying.

Bullying of any kind, including homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying, wherever it takes place, is unacceptable and must be addressed swiftly and effectively whenever it arises.

The National Approach to Anti-bullying for Scotland’s Children and Young People is currently being updated. This sets out a common vision and aims to make sure that work across all agencies and communities is consistently and coherently contributing to anti-bullying in Scotland. LGBT Youth Scotland and Stonewall Scotland are part of the working group. This will be published later in 2017.

There is no legal definition of bullying in Scotland and as such, bullying is not a crime. However, certain incidents can often be more serious and criminal in nature. It is important to ensure that there is a clear distinction between bullying and criminal offences such as hate crime. There are laws to protect children and young people from this very serious type of behaviour. Following an investigation by the Police, the decision to proceed will rest with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

The Scottish Government established and wholly funds 'respectme', a national anti-bullying service, to build confidence and capacity to address all types of bullying effectively, aligned to the National Approach to Anti-bullying in Scotland. 'respectme' provide direct support to local authorities, schools, youth groups and all those working with children and young people.

The UK Government published their 132-page consultation document on 23 January 2017. The consultation is grouped around ten ‘pillars’: investing in science, research & innovation; upgrading infrastructure; improving procurement; delivering affordable energy & clean growth; driving growth across the whole country; developing skills; supporting businesses to start & grow; encouraging trade & inward investment; cultivating world-leading sectors; and creating the right local institutions. We are currently working through the detail of the paper to see where the proposals can be strengthened to benefit the Scottish economy.

The Scottish Government produce estimates of international exports in the Export Statistics Scotland publication. The latest figures, for 2015, show Scottish exports to Australia were worth £555 million; to New Zealand were worth £55 million; to Canada were worth £470 million; and to the rest of the Commonwealth were worth £1.7 billion.

The Scottish Government continues to prioritise improving trade links with a number of potential markets. As highlighted in the Scottish Government’s Trade and Investment strategy, Scotland’s export base needs to broaden beyond EU markets and Scottish Development International works closely with a range of overseas partners to identify and deliver international opportunities in growth sectors and growth markets. SDI has a network of global field offices, with over 100 sales professionals promoting Scotland across the world. Since 2012, SDI has opened new offices in Saudi Arabia, Ghana, Canada, Brazil, China and India.

Canada is one of the Scottish Government’s priority countries and on 23 December 2016 we published a refreshed Engagement Strategy which reflects some of Canada’s priorities, matched with Scotland’s expertise and interests.

Aviation security is reserved to the UK Parliament. Following an in-depth review of the security measures at airports in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, passenger screening at airports at Campbeltown and Tiree has been streamlined for customers flying to Glasgow airport. No changes have been introduced at Barra. Passengers transferring to other flights at Glasgow will be subject to the same security process as all other passengers departing Glasgow.

The UK Digital Economy Bill covers a wide range of areas. With a few exceptions, the Bill extends to Scotland. It mainly relates to reserved matters but the Scottish Government, after extensive discussion on the detail of the devolved provisions in the Bill, has now lodged a Legislative Consent Memorandum: http://www.parliament.scot/SPLCM-S05-8.pdf The draft Motion seeks consent from the Scottish Parliament for the UK Parliament to legislate for Scotland in relation to devolved matters and matters which alter the executive competence of the Scottish Ministers.

The Scottish Government welcomes moves to update the Electronic Communications Code but understands the concerns being raised by landowners and others about the changes being made to the level of consideration paid to landowners – including public sector bodies – under the new Code. The level of consideration paid under the Code is reserved. We also welcome moves to prevent access by persons under the age of 18 to internet pornography and amendments to the Bill to prevent or restrict the use of communication devices, such as mobile phones, for drug dealing. We also welcome amendments to the Bill to improve access for disabled people to on-demand programme services.

On data sharing to improve public service delivery, to reduce debt owed to the public sector and to tackle fraud against the public sector, the Scottish Minsters will consider very carefully, assuming the Bill is passed, where we can make regulations to allow data sharing by devolved bodies to tackle these areas. Any such regulations made by the Scottish Ministers are subject to the affirmative procedure in the Scottish Parliament. We welcome the provisions in the Bill on data sharing for research and statistical purposes as these will streamline and strengthen the sharing of data for research purposes and enhance analytical work carried out by the Scottish Government.

On the BBC, the Scottish Government welcomes the new regulatory regime as set out in the new Charter and Agreement regarding the BBC and will continue to engage with both the BBC and Ofcom regarding implementation. The Scottish Government continues to oppose the imposition of welfare policy, in terms of the funding of the licence fee for the over 75s, to the BBC.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-06333 on 1 February 2017. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The scheme will be delivered by ScotRail in mid-2017. Further details will be announced in sufficient time to allow passengers to benefit from the free week (and other initiatives) in mid-2017. This initiative will not impact on
projects that have been identified and planned for delivery (e.g. those committed through the ScotRail SQUIRE scheme).

The Scottish Government’s alcohol strategy, Changing Scotland's Relationship with Alcohol: A Framework for Action, is well regarded internationally and contains over 40 measures to tackle alcohol misuse. The Framework has been shown to have a positive impact including 2.6 per cent reduction in consumption due to the multi-buy discount ban; increased delivery of Alcohol Brief Interventions; legislation to ban irresponsible promotions and the introduction of a lower drink drive limit. However, given the link between affordability and harm, we remain committed to minimum unit pricing which is the most effective pricing measure to tackle the high strength, low cost alcohol that causes so much damage to our communities. We are in the process of refreshing our Framework and will consider what further action to take to reduce alcohol-related harm.