SCOTS TORY LEADER AGAINST NO DEAL BREXIT
SCOTTISH charities have reported 170 malpractice issues within their own institutions since 2016. The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator have received nearly two “notifiable events” a week, including issues of financial wrongdoing and sexual misconduct. According to reports yesterday, of the 170 notifications made to the OSCR, 19 related to incidents involving children or vulnerable adults, as well as 15 cases of alleged sexual misconduct. One charity who came under scrutiny are Halo, the Dumfries-based landmine clearance organisation. A male employee in Burma has been suspended and is under investigation following allegations of sexual assault. The Charity Commision have been notified. Only last week, Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson visited Kabul, Afghanistan, to work with the charity for four days. She said: “The Halo Trust are one of the great Scottish success stories. As a long-term supporter, I was honoured to have been asked to see their work for myself.
“With so much attention on the work of non-governmental organisations this week for all the wrong reasons, it has been a privilege to come to Afghanistan and see this life-changing work in one of the most difficult regions on earth.
“This is the real story of what aid money can achieve.”
A Tory spokesman said the allegation was “extremely concerning”.
In Scotland, of the sexual misconduct allegations made to the OSCR, the Sunday Times say nine have been probed by police, of which five are still under investigation, while six others are being looked at by the Scottish Government’s child abuse inquiry.
Two sexual abuse cases involve staff hired by the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (Sciaf). They said they had dealt with the incidents, which involved children.
Sciaf director Alaistair Dutton has written to every Catholic parish in Scotland. He wrote: “We take sexual misconduct and the safeguarding of children, young people and vulnerable adults extremely seriously and do not tolerate any misconduct of this kind.”