Redress Scheme Update

09/07/2024

On Tuesday 9th July General Synod debated the revised Abuse (Redress) Measure that will, once it comes into effect, make legal provision for the creation of the Redress Scheme for victims and survivors of Church-related abuse.  

The Chair of the Revision Committee, the Ven Fiona Gibson, introduced the debate and thanked members of General Synod for their contributions following the first consideration of the Measure in November 2023. She also thanked survivors for their input into the legislative process, saying: “Their willingness to engage in this way at no small cost to themselves is greatly appreciated.”

The Chair of the Redress Project Board, Bishop Philip Mounstephen, welcomed the debate and emphasised the role survivors have played in the policy development and Project Board decisions. He said: “Survivors have spoken into all the policy decisions made by the Redress Project Board…and I am delighted that Fiona and both the Revision and Steering Committees have consistently tested all proposed revisions using questions including ‘what have survivors said about this?’”

The Measure is expected to return to General Synod for final approval in February 2025. 

Read the speech of the Chair of the Redress Project Board.  

As Chair of the Redress Project Board, I want to thank the members of the revision committee and the steering committee for the dignity, respect and compassion they have exemplified through this legislative process and that they thereby afford to people who might apply to his Scheme. I believe they have already begun to deliver the vital first clause of this Measure.

Thank you, Synod, too, for your continued encouragement, scrutiny and wisdom as we have debated the forthcoming Redress Scheme in recent months. The points you’ve made in our series of fringe events and in the debates here in the chamber have contributed to the work which has brought us to this point. Your proposed revisions - coming as they did during the policy development process as we run this in parallel with the legislative process - have tangibly contributed to the quality of the Measure and of the Scheme.

On Saturday, I was privileged to chair a fringe event where we heard from three survivors as well as from Fiona Gibson and Carl Fender, our two committee chairs. These survivors, along with others, have been involved with designing this Redress Scheme over the last few years and have contributed a great deal of wisdom and insight, often at great personal cost.

And these survivors have spoken into all the policy decisions made by the Redress Project Board. All of them.

And I am delighted that Fiona and both the Revision and Steering Committees have consistently tested all proposed revisions using questions including ‘what have survivors said about this?’

At the fringe event, survivors said they saw their work reflected in this Measure, including in the alterations added during the revision process. So thank you Synod for listening to them.

The other question the committees asked themselves as they considered proposed revisions was ‘how does this contribute to a ‘whole church approach’?’

The ‘whole church approach’ is the term we’ve been using in Redress to communicate our collective covenantal commitment. Redress is not an opportunity or excuse to pass off our responsibility to someone else – to the Church Commissioners, to the external supplier who will be the ‘redress body’ as outlined in his Measure, or anywhere else. Instead, Redress is an expression of our collective repentance and our corporate commitment to helping survivors to rebuild their lives. We do this together.

I urge you to note and to be ready to respond to the points in the Measure which relate directly to a whole church approach: that is, the requirement for information to help the redress body complete the assessment process; the request for participation in the forms of redress which are not financial (referred to in the Measure as ‘other remedy’); and to seriously and prayerfully consider an invitation to contribute financially if you receive one.