Date received: 15 March 2024
Date responded: 10 April 2024
Information Requested:
1. Are allegations made against teachers or others, in applications to Redress Scotland, routinely forwarded to Police Scotland and/or the Crown Office / Procurator Fiscal Service?
2. If allegations are not routinely forwarded to the police / COPFS, what criteria would be used to determine which allegations to report, if any, and which allegations not to report?
3. On how many occasions have allegations made to Redress Scotland resulted in prosecutions of alleged perpetrators? How many of those prosecutions resulted in convictions?
4. What standard of evidence / level of corroboration is required to determine that redress should be paid to a claimant? If different levels of evidence are required for fixed rate / individually assessed payments, please outline the differences in detail.
5. Have any claims for redress been successful based solely on allegations from alleged victims? If any, please provide the number of successful redress applications that were based solely on allegations from alleged victims, without other supporting evidence.
6. Are allegations made to Redress Scotland in applications for redress routinely passed to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry? If so, how many alleged perpetrators have been reported to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry by Redress Scotland? What threshold of evidence, if any, is required for Redress Scotland to pass details of allegations to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry?
7. In total, how many applications have been made to Redress Scotland for a) fixed rate payments and b) individually assessed payments?
8. In total, how many applications for a) fixed-rate payments and b) individually assessed payments have been successful / rejected / are still to be determined?
Redress Scotland’s Response:
1. Are allegations made against teachers or others, in applications to Redress Scotland, routinely forwarded to Police Scotland and/or the Crown Office / Procurator Fiscal Service? If safeguarding concerns are raised during Redress Scotland’s processing of applications for redress, these are forwarded on to the Scottish Government’s Redress Scheme Team.
Under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act Scotland 2002, where public authorities receive requests for information that they do not hold, they must issue notice advising that they do not hold the requested information. Unfortunately this means that we cannot advise you on these points.
You may be able to request the information you are looking for by making a Freedom of Information request to the Scottish Government using this link: Freedom of Information Scottish Government.
2. If allegations are not routinely forwarded to the police / COPFS, what criteria would be used to determine which allegations to report, if any, and which allegations not to report? As above.
3. On how many occasions have allegations made to Redress Scotland resulted in prosecutions of alleged perpetrators? How many of those prosecutions resulted in convictions? Under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act Scotland 2002, where public authorities receive requests for information that they do not hold, they must issue notice advising that they do not hold the requested information. Unfortunately this means that we cannot advise you on these points.
You may be able to request the information you are looking for by making a Freedom of Information request to Police Scotland using this link: Freedom of Information – Police Scotland
4. What standard of evidence / level of corroboration is required to determine that redress should be paid to a claimant? If different levels of evidence are required for fixed rate / individually assessed payments, please outline the differences in detail: Information about the evidence that is required for applications can be found in the Statutory Guidance for evidential requirements and determinations by Redress Scotland which is available here: Redress For Survivors (Historical Child Abuse In Care) (Scotland) Act 2021: statutory guidance – evidential requirements and determinations by Redress Scotland – gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
5. Have any claims for redress been successful based solely on allegations from alleged victims? If any, please provide the number of successful redress applications that were based solely on allegations from alleged victims, without other supporting evidence: Within the Statutory Guidance for evidential requirements and determinations by Redress Scotland, there are avenues that panel members can explore whilst making determinations on applications which allow for their discretion to be used in exceptional circumstances where there is no supporting information available.
As the latter part of this question would require a significant amount of analysis work across application determinations, we will not be able to answer at this time.
Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act allows us to decline to answer FOI requests when we estimate it would cost us more than £450 (18 hours of work, calculated at £25 per hour as the legislation sets out), which this question would exceed. This is because information about occasions where determinations have been made without supporting evidence has not been centralised, so this would therefore require work to pull the information together before analysis could then be undertaken.
You can find out more about Section 12 at the following link: Freedom of Information Act 2000 (legislation.gov.uk)
6. Are allegations made to Redress Scotland in applications for redress routinely passed to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry? If so, how many alleged perpetrators have been reported to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry by Redress Scotland? What threshold of evidence, if any, is required for Redress Scotland to pass details of allegations to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry? If safeguarding concerns are raised during Redress Scotland’s processing of applications for redress, these are forwarded on to the Scottish Government’s Redress Scheme Team.
Under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act Scotland 2002, where public authorities receive requests for information that they do not hold, they must issue notice advising that they do not hold the requested information. Unfortunately this means that we cannot advise you on these points.
You may be able to request the information you are looking for by making a Freedom of Information request to the Scottish Government using this link: Freedom of Information Scottish Government.
7. In total, how many applications have been made to Redress Scotland for a) fixed rate payments and b) individually assessed payments? In total, as of 22 March 2024, Redress Scotland had received 612 Fixed Payment and 1,303 Individually Assessed Payment applications.
8. In total, how many applications for a) fixed-rate payments and b) individually assessed payments have been successful / rejected / are still to be determined? In total, as of 22 March 2024, Redress Scotland had made decisions on:
• 517 Fixed Payment applications, 489 of which resulted in a Fixed Payment award and 28 decisions to deny redress.
• 939 Individually Assessed applications, 914 of which resulted in an Individually Assessed awards and 25 decisions to deny redress.
In total, as of 22 March 2024, there were:
• 361 Individually Assessed applications,
• 95 Fixed Payment applications in progress within Redress Scotland
plus
• A further 3 Individually Assessed applications that had been withdrawn at the request of the applicants.