The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry is to be extended beyond its initial four-year remit after its chair told the Scottish Government the job was not possible in that time frame.
Deputy first minister John Swinney is to announce an extension of Scotland's biggest every public inquiry this afternoon after Lady Smith wrote to him a week ago requesting a change to its terms of reference.
The SCAI, which has so far cost £14million, was initially asked to report to ministers within four years. This would have meant it concluded by October 2019.
However, according to a letter sent out to victims today "Lady Smith has informed Mr Swinney that it will not be possible to report in that timescale due to the very wide remit of the Inquiry covering from living memory to 2014 and the very large number of institutions providing care in the range of settings covered."
The remit of the inquiry is vast - taking in not just physical and sexual abuse but emotional and "spiritual" abuse too. It covers residential care homes run by the state, religious organisations and charities and in foster care. And it is empowered to investigate any events in living memory.
READ MORE: Scottish child abuse inquiry told Nazereth House nun 'took girl to be raped by farmer'
The letter said Mr Swinney had agreed that "it is of the utmost importance that the Inquiry is given the time to investigate its remit thoroughly and properly"
It is understood that the minister wants to enable the Inquiry to hear from as many survivors as possible and has therefore agreed to publish amended terms of reference for the inquiry this afternoon.
READ MORE: 300 complaints lodged against homes run by the Sisters of Nazareth
David Whelan, of the abuse survivor group Former Boys and Girls Abused of Quarriers Homes said he welcomed the news. "IF it is extended because the inquiry requires more time to investigate the issues and investigate them properly and thoroughly, then we welcome that" he said. "I would be concerned that it is not open ended."
Abuse campaigner Dave Sharp added: "This shows the inquiry is working and this is an opportunity to encourage as many people as possible to come forward."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel