Meeting of the Parliament 23 March 2016
I acknowledge that this is probably Mr Pearson’s last contribution in the chamber. I know that he has been a great friend to survivors and to many organisations, which I appreciate.
Mr Pearson knows that it has been very challenging to reach a decision on the inquiry’s scope given the wide range of views, even among survivors. However, the remit cannot be so wide that survivors lose hope of the inquiry ever reaching clear and specific conclusions. The definitions of “abuse” and “in care” for the purposes of the inquiry are very broad, and that was in response to the views expressed by survivors to me and to other ministers.
Mr Pearson has attended meetings with survivors that I have participated in, so he is very much aware that there are clear issues about the time-bar legislation and it not applying to pre-1964 cases. I gave a commitment in this chamber, which acknowledged those issues, that we would nonetheless have a dialogue with partners. I am pleased to say that Jamie Hepburn has announced the successful tender for the consortium for the survivor support fund and that this Government will be prioritising the needs of older survivors within that support fund to ensure that their needs are assessed and that they have access to the service and the fund by June this year.