Child abuse inquiry will not be extended to football cases

The child abuse inquiry will not be extended to include football-related incidents, with the First Minister citing fears it would add years to the inquiry.

Responding to Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale’s calls for football to be included in the inquiry led by Lady Smith, Nicola Sturgeon repeated Education Secretary John Swinney’s reason for refusing to allow a wider remit.

She said: “The inquiry, which is already the most wide-ranging public inquiry ever held in Scotland, deliberately focuses on in-care abuse – abuse that took place in institutions or other settings that had legal responsibility for the long-term care of children in place of their parents.

“To widen the remit of that inquiry would mean that it would take perhaps many, many years longer to conclude its investigations and would risk becoming completely unwieldy. We would be at risk, I think, of breaking our word to the survivors of in-care abuse.

“My view is that we should allow that inquiry to get on with its job and we should allow the police to get on with their job of investigating allegations of abuse in football.”

But she added that if “wider systemic issues” came to light the Scottish government would “consider very seriously” what action to take.