Members’ Business debate in Scottish Parliament on Justice for Survivors of Historic Institutional Child Abuse

The Commission welcomes today’s Members’ Business debate at Scottish Parliament on Justice for Survivors of Historic Institutional Child Abuse.

The debate can be streamed live from the Scottish Parliament’s website http://www.scottishparliament.tv/ and is due to be held just after 5pm.

Yesterday the Commission sent a briefing to MSPs which highlights the InterAction process that the Commission has conducted with the Centre for Excellence on Looked After Children in Scotland. The InterAction process brought together those affected by historic abuse, institutions, government, residential care workers, civil society and others to give their views on how justice for victims of historic abuse should be achieved and resulted in an Action Plan for Justice for Victims of Historic Abuse of Children in Care which was published in December 2013.

The Action Plan has two outcomes, each with a series of commitments which were agreed by participants.

Outcome 1: Acknowledgement of historic abuse of children in care and effective apologies are achieved.

In finalising the Action Plan, parties have been encouraged to consider steps which will deliver the following commitments:

  1. Barriers to effective apologies from those with historic responsibility for child care in Scotland are increasingly removed, including through a full consideration of the merits of an Apology Law.
  2. In establishing the National Confidential Forum, every effort will be made to consider how this might contribute to establishing a national record.
  3. Consideration will be given to appropriate forms of commemoration, guided by the views of victims/survivors.

Outcome 2: Accountability for historic abuse of children in care will be upheld, including access to justice, effective remedies and reparation.

In finalising the Action Plan, parties have been encouraged to consider steps which will deliver the following commitments:

  1. There should be a review of the lessons learned from previous inquiries and related processes such as the Historical Abuse Systemic Review. The review should consider what added value a National Inquiry on Historic Abuse would have, and should scope the potential costs.
  2. The civil justice system should be increasingly accessible, adapted and appropriate for survivors of historic abuse of children in care, including through the review of the way in which “time bar” operates.
  3. There should be a nationally consistent and appropriate approach to the investigation and prosecution of offences relating to historic abuse of children in care.
  4. Reparation: Options for the development of a national survivor support fund should be explored with all of those affected, including victims/survivors, public, private, voluntary and religious bodies, local authorities and others affected.
  5. Empowerment: Survivors should be supported to understand and access the range of measures of in this Action Plan.
  6. Records: the outcomes of the ongoing review of record keeping and access to historic records should be considered in the implementation and review of this Action Plan.

Various bodies are currently considering the actions they can take to implement these commitments, ahead of a “recall” of the InterAction in June 2014.

Find out more about the Commission’s work on Historic Abuse.