Current status: Answered by John Swinney on 18 April 2017
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5F-00477 by Nicola Sturgeon on 17 November 2016 (Official Report, c. 23), what steps it has taken to tackle the specific issue of online racist bullying.
Bullying of any form is entirely unacceptable and we need to be vigilant in challenging any racist and abusive behaviour in our schools. We want all children and young people to learn tolerance, respect, equality and good citizenship to address and prevent prejudice. In March 2016, we published the Race Equality Framework for Scotland, and are taking forward a number of actions to ensure that minority ethnic pupils have confidence in, and are effectively supported by, approaches in schools to prevent and respond to prejudice-based bullying and racist behaviour or incidents.
In addition, we funded 'Show Racism the Red Card' (Scotland) £50,000 in 2016-17 to deliver a programme of anti-racism education to young people in Scottish schools.
All schools and local authorities should have anti-bullying policies in place. The Scottish Government agreed to a request from the Scottish Parliament’s Equalities and Human Rights Committee for further engagement on the development of the Government’s refreshed anti-bullying guidance with a range of stakeholders. This revised guidance will be clear that all types of bullying, including prejudice-based bullying is unacceptable and must be addressed whenever and wherever it arises.
To support a proactive approach to addressing bullying, the Scottish Government fully funds respectme, Scotland’s anti-bullying service to provide direct support to local authorities, schools, youth groups and all those working with children and young people to build confidence and capacity to address all types of bullying effectively.
The Scottish Government has also been working across government and with key stakeholders to update our action plan on child internet safety to ensure we have appropriate frameworks of training, support and information in place for professionals and families, including children and young people. The updated action plan will be published in April 2017.