Contributions to the redress scheme
Section 14: Scheme contributors
25.Section 14 relates to those making financial contributions towards the funding of redress payments under the redress scheme. This places a requirement on the Scottish Ministers to keep, maintain and publish a list of organisations who currently carry out, or have in the past carried out, functions in relation to the safeguarding, protection or care of children, who are making fair and meaningful financial contributions to the scheme, and who in making or agreeing to make such a contribution acknowledge the wrongfulness of, and the harm caused by, historical child abuse covered by the scheme (scheme contributors). The contributor list will contain information about: when a scheme contributor is included in the list; the financial contribution the scheme contributor is making or has agreed to make; where a scheme contributor is removed from the list, the date on which removal takes effect; and information on whether a contributor who is removed from the list has been removed with retrospective effect in accordance with section 16. The contributor list may include such other information as the Scottish Ministers consider appropriate, including, in so far as known, details of relevant care settings the scheme contributor was responsible for (section 14(4)).
26.Subsection (5) requires the Scottish Ministers to ensure that applicants to the redress scheme are made aware of the contributor list and of the effect of section 46. Section 46 makes provision for waiver, including that a waiver applies to scheme contributors included on the contributor list on the date Redress Scotland determines an individual’s eligibility for a redress payment.
27.Subsection (6) sets out that the Scottish Ministers may revise the list by including an organisation on the list, varying descriptions of scheme contributors, removing a scheme contributor (either retrospectively or not), including information on payments actually made by a scheme contributor in respect of their agreed financial contribution (and subsequently updating it), or by varying other information on the list.
28.Subsection (7) requires the Scottish Ministers to publish the contributor list (including any revisions to it) at such intervals, and in such form, as they consider appropriate.
29.Subsection (8) clarifies that the removal of a scheme contributor from the list does not affect any waiver signed under section 46 unless and to the extent that the removal is to have retrospective effect. Where the removal has retrospective effect, the effect of section 46(7) is that the waiver continues to apply against an organisation only if the retrospective date of removal falls after the date that eligibility to a redress payment was determined.
30.Subsection (9) clarifies that becoming a scheme contributor or giving the acknowledgement required by subsection (1)(c) cannot, for the purposes of other proceedings, be taken as evidence of anything relevant to the determination of liability in connection with an allegation of abuse. The purpose of the redress scheme is not to determine liability for abuse in a way that a court would or in a way that would have legal consequences outside the redress scheme itself.
Section 15: Statement of principles in relation to contributor list
31.Section 15(1) requires the Scottish Ministers to prepare and publish a statement of principles on which they will determine whether a contributor should be included in, or removed from, the scheme contributor list. The principles relating to removal must cover both removal with retrospective effect in accordance with section 16 and non-retrospective removal.
32.Subsection (2) requires that those principles include the matters which are to be taken into account in determining whether a contribution is fair and meaningful. These matters must include the circumstances in which a contribution which is proposed to be made over time for reasons of affordability, or which takes into account the sustainability of services being provided by the prospective contributor, can be fair and meaningful. For example, the principles could set out appropriate parameters for timescales where contributions are proposed to be made by instalments.
33.Subsection (3) ensures that this obligation can be complied with by this being done in advance of the requirement coming into force.
Section 16: Retrospective removal of scheme contributor from contributor list
34.This section makes provision about the power (under section 14(6)(c)) of the Scottish Ministers to remove a scheme contributor from the contributor list with retrospective effect. Subsection (1) provides that this power applies only where the contributor has failed to make the agreed financial contribution under section 14(1)(b). Following such a removal from the contributor list, the contributor will no longer benefit from any waivers signed and returned under section 46 in respect of redress payments to which it has not contributed. The calculation of which redress payments it has contributed to is to be carried out in accordance with the remainder of section 16.
35.Subsections (2) and (3) require the Scottish Ministers to carry out an assessment of the contribution made by the scheme contributor and to appropriately allocate it (in accordance with the fair and meaningful statement of principles under section 15) against redress payments, and to determine a date on which the retrospective removal will take effect. Under subsection (4), this date is to be determined by reference to the point at which the sums paid by the contributor are exhausted and there is no longer funding to allocate against redress payments.
Section 17: Financial contributions by charities
36.This section applies where a charity makes a financial contribution to the redress scheme. Financial contributions made by charities will be treated as being in furtherance of the charity’s charitable purposes and consistent with the charity’s constitution, providing public benefit, not being contrary to the interests of the charity, and being within the powers exercisable by the charity trustees of the charity. However, this section does not authorise the use of restricted funds for this purpose. In addition, charity trustees will still have to comply with their duties under section 66 of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, although those duties must be considered in light of the modifications made by section 17(2) of the Act.
