'No-Blame' Redress scheme

Responding to this consultation paper

We are inviting written responses to this consultation paper by 24 June 2016.

Please send your response with the completed Respondent Information Form in Part 2 (see "Handling your Response" below)

By e-mail: No-BlameRedressScheme@gov.scot

Or

By mail:

If you have any queries please contact Julie Crawford on 0131 244 0355.

We would be grateful if you would use the consultation questionnaire provided in Part Two as part of the Respondent Information Form or could clearly indicate in your response which questions or parts of the consultation paper you are responding to as this will aid our analysis of the responses received.

This consultation, and all other Scottish Government (SG) consultation exercises, can be viewed online on the consultation web pages of the Scottish Government website at https://consult.scotland.gov.uk/.

The Scottish Government has an email alert system for consultations, http://register.scotland.gov.uk. This system allows stakeholder individuals and organisations to register and receive a weekly email containing details of all new consultations (including web links). It complements, but in no way replaces SG distribution lists, and is designed to allow stakeholders to keep up to date with all SG consultation activity, and therefore be alerted at the earliest opportunity to those of most interest. We would encourage you to register.

Handling your response

We need to know how you wish your response to be handled and, in particular, whether you are happy for your response to be made public. Please complete and return the Respondent Information Form attached as Part 2 of the consultation document as this will ensure that we treat your response appropriately. If you ask for your response not to be published we will regard it as confidential, and we will treat it accordingly. All respondents should be aware that the Scottish Government are subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and would therefore have to consider any request made to it under the Act for information relating to responses made to this consultation exercise.

Next steps in the process

Where respondents have given permission for their response to be made public and after we have checked that they contain no potentially defamatory material, responses will be made available to the public in the Scottish Government Library. You can make arrangements to view responses by contacting the SG Library on 0131 244 4552. Responses can be copied and sent to you, but a charge may be made for this service.

What happens next?

Following the closing date, all responses will be analysed and considered along with any other available evidence to help us consider the way forward. We aim to issue a report on this consultation process along with our Bill proposals and consultation later in 2016.

Comments and complaints

If you have any comments about how this consultation exercise has been conducted, please send them to the address given above.

If you want additional paper copies of the consultation paper, or if you or someone you care for requires this paper in a different format or language, please contact us at:

No-Blame Redress Scheme Team
Care, Support and Rights Division
St Andrew's House
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG

Or e-mail to: No-BlameRedressScheme@gov.scot

Copies of the documents mentioned in this paper can also be obtained from these addresses.

This consultation is being conducted in line with the Scottish Government's consultation process Consultation: Good Practice Guidance^[1]

This consultation, and all other Scottish Government consultation exercises, can be viewed online on the consultation web pages at https://consult.scotland.gov.uk/. You can telephone Freephone 0800 77 1234 to find out where your nearest public internet access point is. There will be no charge for this call.

A Public Consultation on Draft Proposals for a No-Blame Redress Scheme in Scotland for Harm Resulting from Clinical Treatment

This consultation is for anyone who would be affected in anyway by a change in the compensation arrangements for injuries resulting from clinical treatment. There are a number of interests at stake, for example: NHS and private patients or staff; patient's families; carers; NHS Boards; healthcare professionals; NHS and private healthcare providers, equipment suppliers, regulatory bodies, Royal Colleges, medical defence associations; and the legal profession.

The consultation paper explains the background to the work undertaken by the No-fault Compensation Review Group established by the Scottish Government in 2009. It should be read in conjunction with the Review Group's report^[2], the Researcher's Study report^[3] and the Scottish Government response^[4] to the consultation on the Review Group's recommendations.

In particular the consultation seeks views on the proposals for:

• principles and eligibility criteria
• scope
• legislation
• continuing care costs
• administration, independence and funding
• appeals process

The consultation questions are included within the text of the paper in Part 1, and for ease these are repeated behind the Respondent Information Form, included at Part 2.