Safeguarding failures
As a member of the McLellan Commission into safeguarding procedures in the Catholic Church in Scotland and a signatory to Dr McLellan’s letter critical of progress on the recommendations made by the commission, I wish to respond to the defensive reaction by the Scottish Bishops’ Conference to the issues we raised (“Church accused over failing to adopt safeguarding measures”, News From Britain and Ireland, 12 November).

The bishops did publish an implementation plan but it was only after an intervention by Dr McLellan that they decided to consult about it. They have published nothing about the outcome of that consultation.

Our commission stressed that engaging with victims and survivors was an urgent priority for the bishops. There are survivor and victim charities they can dialogue with as well as individuals who could help them put words into action.

The bishops’ auditing of safeguarding is not unique in the Catholic world and we came to the conclusion that it was not comprehensively effective.