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This information is not held centrally. Local authorities can and do collect the information locally .

Officials will continue to regularly meet representatives of the MoD to discuss a wide range of matters, including education matters, as part of our commitment to working in partnership with the MoD to improve outcomes for the people of Scotland. The UK-wide Education Support Fund has been discussed at several of the Scottish Service Children Strategy Group quarterly meetings chaired by the Scottish Government.

The Additional Support for Learning (ASL) Act places duties on education authorities to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs, long and short term, of their pupils. The supporting statutory Code of Practice is clear that additional support needs encompass a wide range of issues, including those which might impact on children from forces families such as interrupted learning and parental deployment.

The Act makes specific provisions to enable all children and young people with additional support needs, including those from forces families, to receive help in preparation for transitions in school. The support provided and the way that it is managed will depend on individual circumstances and is a matter for the education authority, school and family.

There are no plans to implement a Service Pupil Premium in Scotland. The Education Support Fund has been additional to, not instead of, the existing, and different, UK policy measures which support armed forces children’s education. These include Additional Support for Learning legislation in Scotland and the Service Pupil Premium in England.

The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 defines information as "recorded in any form”, so information held on any new form of communication developed since the introduction of the Act may be within the scope of a Freedom of Information request.

Scottish Government guidance is explicit that official information held in media including, but not limited to: email accounts, social media accounts (eg Facebook, Twitter), text messaging, mobile messaging (eg WhatsApp, Skype, Snapchat), cloud storage and collaboration tools, is subject to the Act.

Our guidance is available to view on an external sharepoint site that can be accessed from the Scottish Government FOI webpage: https://www.gov.scot/publications/freedom-of-information-document-collection/.

At a Spending Review, Barnett consequentials are determined on a departmental level as opposed to a programme level, it is therefore not possible to isolate the financial impact of individual spending decisions.

Whilst is not possible to determine the specific impact, any consequentials from Pupil Premium, of which Service Pupil Premium is a sub programme, were reflected in the Scottish Government's total allocation announced in the 2010 Spending Review.

The Scottish Government recognises that all victims and survivors of domestic abuse deserve access to support.

Funding for domestic abuse services includes support for services who work with male victims. Over 2017 to 2020, these include nearly £85,000 to run the Respect Helpline which signposts male survivors of domestic abuse to support services, over £3 million to ASSIST who, as part of their work, provide advocacy support to male survivors of domestic abuse in the Lothians and over £180,000 to Committed to Ending Abuse which supports all victims and survivors of domestic abuse in the Falkirk area, which includes those who identify as male.

Of funding for support services of domestic abuse, 17.9% goes to services who offer support to adult victims who identify as male. The remaining 82.1% goes to services supporting women and children.

The Scottish Government recognises that all victims and survivors of domestic abuse deserve access to support.

We will hold a roundtable this year to consider the impact on men of gender based violence, looking at their roles as victims of violence, as perpetrators of it and as allies in its prevention. Amongst other things, this will consider support available for male victims.

The Scottish Government is investing over £12 million from the Equality Budget to tackle all forms of violence against women and girls. This includes funding for local services to support children who have experienced domestic abuse, such as children's support services provided by local Women's Aid centres. National organisations such as Barnardo’s and Children 1 st also offer support to children who have experienced domestic abuse. A full breakdown of funding under the Equally Safe (Violence against Women and Girls) Fund can be found at https://www.gov.scot/publications/vawg-fund-2017-2020/ .

The Scottish Government will undertake further research, consultation and engagement with the potentially affected demographics and relevant interest groups prior to a decision being made. The Government will take the comments received during the consultation process into careful consideration in deciding the way forward.