Policy consultations and requests for feedback

Over the year 2020, Families Outside fed into numerous policy consultations and requests for feedback, nationally and internationally. Among other projects, the organisation submitted a brief to the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Human Rights Council on children’s rights to privacy; was consulted by the Scottish Sentencing Council to establish the ‘Sentencing Young People’ guidelines; fed into the INCCIP survey looking at the impacts of COVID-19 on children with incarcerated parents; and participated in the University of Glasgow’s ‘Scotland in Lockdown’ research. Moreover, Families Outside’s ‘No Address in the Press’ campaign to prevent families’ addresses being published in the press when someone goes to prison was lodged as a petition for the Scottish Parliament but was rejected. The petition was rejected on the grounds that current legislation already protects families from adverse publicity. Families Outside is gathering additional evidence and will be able to try again in a year’s time.