Debate contribution: Bullying in Schools
Debate contribution by Mr Paul Givan on .
- MLA
- Mr Paul Givan
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 3 June 2024
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Bullying in Schools
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4493289
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Mr Speaker, with your permission, I will answer questions 3 and 6 together. The Addressing Bullying in Schools Act 2016 came into operation on 1 September 2021. The Act has three core parts: it provides a common definition of "bullying"; establishes a new duty for schools to record all incidents of bullying, including their motivation and outcome; and requires boards of governors to take responsibility for the development, implementation, monitoring and periodic review of their schools' anti-bullying policies. Concerns were raised during the public consultation on the legislative proposals that led to the Act that any such data that was held by the Department of Education or the Education Authority would be subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and therefore could potentially allow external organisations to create bullying league tables. The then Education Minister subsequently stated that there were no plans to collect or publish any information in relation to bullying incidents. The Department has therefore not directly collated data from schools in relation to bullying incidents. Following initial information and training offers, the Department established the addressing bullying in schools implementation team (ABSIT) in September 2022. The data is held by ABSIT within EA in its response to referrals. Between September 2022 and March 2024, ABSIT responded to 577 referrals relating to bullying-type behaviour. The team has provided specific support to schools with regard to 185 significant bullying-type cases and delivered training to 147 school leadership teams and bespoke training to 110 school governors. Since its launch in January 2024, level 1 foundation training on the Act has been completed by 3,848 educationalists.
266 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.03 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.74).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.02 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.01 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.02 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.74 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.03 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 0.51 |
| Education structures, integration and community division | 0.46 |
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.02 |
| Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues | 0.01 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:33 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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