Scotland's Redress Scheme: progress updates - November 2024

Scotland’s Redress Scheme has been running for nearly three years. The Deputy First Minister, Kate Forbes, has portfolio responsibility for Scotland’s Redress Scheme.

Official statistics for the scheme show that during the first two and a half years of the scheme (8 December 2021 until 6 June 2024):

• we received 3,905 applications
• more than 1,450 applicants have accepted a payment offer and redress payments of more than £75 million have been made
• the most common application types during the first two and a half years were individually assessed payment applications (65%) followed by fixed rate payment applications (26%) and next of kin applications (7%)
• a total of 110 apologies were requested during the first two and a half years of the scheme, 69 of these (63%) had been delivered by June 2024 - other apologies are in progress or have been paused by survivors

There are currently 22 scheme contributors with contributions totalling over £122 million.

Find out more at statistics for Scotland’s Redress Scheme covering the period from December 2021 to June 2024.

We receive applications with varying levels of completeness. Those not yet sent to Redress Scotland include those awaiting further information from the applicant and those requiring further verification. In some cases, survivors have not given us permission to send their application to Redress Scotland or have paused their application.

We recognise that the time taken from applying to the Scheme until a decision is made can be distressing for survivors. We are actively working with Redress Scotland to try to reduce waiting times. This includes continual review and improvement of our operational processes. Scottish Government has recently recruited additional caseworkers whilst Redress Scotland has recruited new panel members.

Statutory guidance updated

We committed to review the statutory guidance as the Scheme progressed and to update the guidance as appropriate. As the Scheme had been open and operational for over two years, we decided it was an appropriate time to conduct this review.

Six pieces of statutory guidance were identified as requiring updates as a priority.

• assessment framework
• evidential requirements
• pausing, withdrawing and making more than one application
• waiver, contributions and other routes to redress
• applicants etc. with serious criminal convictions
• annual reports by redress scheme contributors

We worked with Redress Scotland on this and sought to make the guidance easier to read and remove errors from it. Feedback from survivors informed improvements to the guidance. You can find the updated statutory guidance at Scotland's Redress Scheme - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

The statement of principles used to assess whether an organisation is making a fair and meaningful financial contribution to Scotland's Redress Scheme. You can find the updated statement of principles at The Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse In Care) (Scotland) Act 2021: financial contributions - statement of principles - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

Communications update

Information about the redress scheme and how to apply has been updated. You can find this on the mygov.scot website.

The Redress Scotland website has also been reviewed and updated at: Redress Scotland – Survivors are at the heart of the Redress Scotland process. This includes information on timescales for decision making and videos explaining the redress application process.

A flowchart has been produced with the aim of providing applicants and stakeholders with a clearer overview of the stages within the redress application process. This is being sent to applicants alongside letters.

Pilot on requesting information directly

We have started a new pilot approach to make evidence gathering for Scotland’s Redress Scheme more efficient. Scottish Government caseworkers are approaching organisations directly to request information verifying that applicants were resident in relevant care settings and when. This approach is being piloted for Fixed Rate Payments only and started in October 2024.

This approach is currently being piloted with one local authority. It aims to simplify the process and reduce the time and effort it takes for applicants to obtain information showing that they were in a relevant care setting. This also aims to reduce the number of subject access requests that organisations are receiving in relation to the redress scheme.

Applicants who consent to taking part in the pilot will not routinely receive full care records. If applicants do want access to full care records they remain free to make a subject access request and to receive support for doing that through the Redress Support Service.

We are actively looking for more local authorities to join this pilot. Interested local authorities should email: redress@gov.scot.