Hansard

The Deputy Presiding Officer (Lewis Macdonald) Lab

The next item of business is a statement by John Swinney on Scotland’s redress scheme for survivors of historical child abuse in care. The cabinet secretary ...

The Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills (John Swinney) SNP

On Thursday last week, the Scottish Government introduced the Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Bill to Parliament. The bill...

The Deputy Presiding Officer Lab

The cabinet secretary will take questions on the issues which were raised in his statement. I intend to allow about 20 minutes for that, after which we will ...

Jamie Greene (West Scotland) (Con) Con

I assure the cabinet secretary that Conservative members will support the efforts of the Government and the Parliament to do what it must to offer redress an...

John Swinney SNP

I thank Mr Greene for his remarks. I welcome the Conservative Party’s encouragement and support in principle for the bill. As I did in my statement, I commit...

Iain Gray (East Lothian) (Lab) Lab

I welcome the introduction of the bill. As I have said previously, we have all let survivors down by taking too long to get to the inquiry, too long to addre...

John Swinney SNP

I welcome Mr Gray’s remarks. Like him, I feel that these issues have gone on for too long. This is the moment to address them, and I make it absolutely clear...

John Finnie (Highlands and Islands) (Green) Green

I, too, thank the cabinet secretary for early sight of his statement. I commend the progress that has been made over the years, not least recently, in relati...

John Swinney SNP

The point that Mr Finnie makes gets to the nub of the argument that Parliament must settle when debating the legislation. In my judgment, having looked at th...

Clare Adamson (Motherwell and Wishaw) (SNP) SNP

I thank the Deputy First Minister for his statement. As convener of the Education and Skills Committee, which will take the bill through the stage 1 process...

John Swinney SNP

A range of organisations already act in that area. Earlier on, I mentioned Future Pathways. A variety of other organisations provide services to survivors. ...

Beatrice Wishart (Shetland Islands) (LD) LD

I associate myself and my party with the Deputy First Minister’s sentiments and the tone of the statement. Financial redress will not make up for the injust...

John Swinney SNP

I thank Beatrice Wishart for her support for the direction of travel in the bill. The Government is already engaged in discussions with a range of organisat...

Alison Harris (Central Scotland) (Con) Con

I see that, in accepting a redress payment, survivors will agree not to continue to raise a civil legal action, as per the Deputy First Minister’s statement,...

John Swinney SNP

My recollection is that it does not. Obviously, there is a choice for an individual in deciding whether to participate in the scheme that is envisaged or whe...

James Dornan (Glasgow Cathcart) (SNP) SNP

Inaudible.—for redress schemes for survivors. If so, how has that shaped the approach that has been taken in Scotland?

John Swinney SNP

I am not sure that I heard all of that question, but I think that I caught the drift of it. Through the interaction group, there has been extensive dialogue...

Johann Lamont (Glasgow) (Lab) Lab

Will the cabinet secretary point to the survivor groups that support his decision to deny survivors the choice to seek compensation from organisations for th...

John Swinney SNP

The point that I make to Johann Lamont is the same response that I gave to Alison Harris: a survivor can decide not to participate in the scheme and can purs...

Annabelle Ewing (Cowdenbeath) (SNP) SNP

Having had the privilege of taking the Limitation (Childhood Abuse) (Scotland) Act 2017 through Parliament, I am very pleased indeed to see that the cabinet ...

John Swinney SNP

I am grateful for the perspective that Annabelle Ewing brings to these very challenging issues, given her involvement with the Limitation (Childhood Abuse) (...

Brian Whittle (South Scotland) (Con) Con

I declare an interest in that, for the past two years, I have been working with a constituent who, after 44 years, has finally managed to get the person accu...

John Swinney SNP

The issue here is the role of the state. Mr Whittle cites the example of a young person who may have experienced abuse in a school. If they were living in a ...

Kenneth Gibson (Cunninghame North) (SNP) SNP

How will the Government reach out to survivors who may live on the margins of society, such as homeless people and addicts, given that those people are more ...

John Swinney SNP

Many of the organisations that deal with survivors find that those people are often immensely traumatised by their experiences and can be hard to reach. Surv...

Daniel Johnson (Edinburgh Southern) (Lab) Lab

Annabelle Ewing touched on the point that the purpose of the new body will be to assess claims. The methodology for doing that will be highly sensitive. When...

John Swinney SNP

The bill is extensive. We have tried to put as much as possible of the information to which Mr Johnson refers into the bill itself. Structuring the bill in t...

Fulton MacGregor (Coatbridge and Chryston) (SNP) SNP

The bill requires the provision of information and evidence in support of applications and it gives the power to compel any individual or body to provide spe...

John Swinney SNP

That is a fundamental question. We all want to avoid any individual experiencing retraumatisation. The bill is designed to help to address the unacceptable e...

The Deputy Presiding Officer Lab

Thank you. That completes questions on the statement.