New Redress bill’s waiver ‘still betrayal of abuse survivors’

Survivors of child abuse still feel a waiver built into a new bill to compensate them is a "betrayal", a campaigner has said.

The Redress for Survivors (Historicalchildabuseincare) (Scotland) Bill is currently at stage two in the Scottish Parliament and would give financial compensation to survivors.

However, as part of the bill, survivors would have to sign a waiver saying they would not pursue further legal action againstcareprovidersafterthey have received the payment.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney has said previously this is to ensure care providers contribute financially to the scheme, ensuring they are not hit with further financial penalties by a court at a later date.

Butthewaiverhasprovencontroversialamongsurvivorsand

oppositionpoliticians,prompting Mr Swinney to propose a number of possible changes to the legislation.

Mr Swinney, who has taken the lead on marshalling the legislation through Holyrood, said in response to the Education and Skills Committee report on the bill that the Government will look to extend from12weekstosixmonthsthe timegiventosurvivorstodecide iftheywishtotakethepayment and sign the waiver.

The waiver is currently only needed if the survivor applying was in the care of a provider which has contributed, but there is no mechanism to revoke the waiver should the provider refuse to, or be unable to, pay into the scheme.

Thedeputyfirstministersaid the Government is looking into the issue.

But in evidence to the committee on yesterday, Wellbeing Scotlandchiefexecutivejanine Rennie said survivors remain angry at the idea of having to signawaiverdespitethechanges pledged.

"Survivors are not satisfied at all by the changes that have been proposed," she said.

"They still feel that the waiver has been a betrayal of everythingthey'vebeenthroughover theyears,andalargenumberof survivors have said they would fight this all the way if they felt thatawaiverwasstillgoingtobe in place within the redress Bill." However, Helen Holland of the In Care Abuse Survivors group disagreed. She told the committee the extension of the decision period to six months would allow for legal advice to be taken on the whether the settlement should be accepted.