Sturgeon confirms Scottish talks on free abortions for Northern Irish women

Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed that the Scottish government is to explore how to allow Northern Irish women to obtain free access to abortions in Scotland’s NHS hospitals.

Scotland’s first minister, during a visit to Dublin on Tuesday, said that the Edinburgh devolved government would hold talks with the Scottish NHS that may enable women from Northern Ireland to have terminations for free on the health service.

Across the UK, the NHS has so far refused to pay for abortions for women from Northern Ireland who travel to Britain. The procedure is only available in Northern Ireland’s hospitals when the pregnancy poses a direct threat to the mother’s life. It is illegal in all other cases.

Last week. Patrick Harvie MSP, the leader of the Green party in the Scottish parliament, said it can cost between £400 and £2,000 for a woman from Northern Ireland to obtain an abortion at a private clinic in Britain.

The supreme court in London is considering an application from a Northern Irish teenager, who, as a 15-year-old, had to go to England to terminate a pregnancy. She is challenging the NHS’s refusal to fund abortions for women from Northern Ireland.

Sturgeon said: “I was asked a question specifically in parliament about the scenario where a woman from Northern Ireland chooses to access an abortion in Scotland and whether they should be charged for that or not.

“Now I said that we would explore that, so we are looking in terms of the process and will discuss with the NHS what would happen now routinely, and whether there are options to change that, to make the process safer for the women concerned.

“My view is that if a woman is going to access an abortion then the important thing is that it is as safe as possible … I am not putting a timescale on it but I will report back to parliament in due course.”

An estimated 2,000 women a year have to raise the money to travel to private English clinics and hospitals from Northern Ireland to have terminations.

However, there is strong opposition from both unionist and nationalist members of the Northern Ireland assembly to liberalising the province’s strict anti-abortion laws. The Abortion Act 1967 was never extended to Northern Ireland and an attempt to ease the law to include cases of fatal foetal abnormalities and pregnancy via sexual crime was rejected this year.

Sturgeon was speaking at an event organised by IBEC, the Irish employers’ organisation, on the second day of her official visit to Ireland. Later on Tuesday she will become the first leader of Scotland to address the Irish parliament when she will deliver a speech in its upper house, the Seanad.

Before her lunchtime speech, Sturgeon said she would press London to retain an open border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and this was central to her discussions with the British government over the impact of Brexit.

“It is absolutely essential to maintain an open border … It is important to emphasise the unique status of Ireland, the peace process and the Good Friday agreement, and keeping an open border. Out of all of the things that we no doubt find disagreements on in terms of Brexit – what does it mean and what paths the UK take – I would hope that something everybody in the UK and also in the European Union can agree on is that there has to be solutions found to avoid some of the implications of Brexit for the island of Ireland,” she said.

She also addressed what she called the “ill will” that exists between London and Brussels since the EU referendum.

Sturgeon said: “I don’t think ill will on this is inevitable but I think it will occur if the UK continues to display the kind of attitude towards this whole situation that it has been doing. But I don’t think ill will is inevitable and that is related to the issue of a plan. If the UK gets itself into a position that is clear, reasonable about what it’s trying to achieve then there may be scope to have a relatively harmonious process that delivers a compromise position.

“There is no plan at present and anyone who tries to suggest otherwise is just indulging in hope over reality. I think Whitehall has been discovering day by day just how complicated the whole situation is. Do I have confidence that there will be a coherent plan? As I say, the jury is out on that and it is still not highly clear to me how the UK gets from where it is now to having a clear consistent plan by the end of March.”

Sturgeon confirms Scottish talks on free abortions for Northern Irish women

Fiona Nash confirms chief of personnel has interest in wife’s foods lobbying firm

The assistant wellness minister’s chief of employees, Alastair Furnival, who intervened to pull down a healthier food rating website, has an interest in his wife’s lobbying company, which acts for Cadbury’s parent organization.

The assistant well being minister, Senator Fiona Nash, confirmed late on Tuesday night that Furnival had a direct curiosity in Australian Public Affairs (APA) partnership, which is owned by his wife, Tracey Cain. APA acts for snack food giant Mondelez, the owner of Cadbury, and soft drink business group Australian Drinks Council. Furnival had also once been chairman of APA.

However, Nash stated “arrangements” had been put in spot to comply with her ministerial obligations, though she did not specify the particulars of people arrangements.

Nash stated Cain had provided undertakings that both she and the organization would not make representations to both Nash, wellness minister Peter Dutton or the Division of Health.

“On the advice offered to me these undertakings have been honoured in complete,” Nash told parliament. “Indeed, neither my chief of employees nor my workplace has met with Mondelez – formerly Kraft – the owners of Cadbury, with whom he worked as a chief economist.”

The prime minister promised Cadbury $ 16m prior to the election to upgrade their factory.

Earlier in the day, Nash confirmed that Furnival, on her orders, intervened to pull down a healthy foods internet site that rated packaged food on a 1-five star basis. She mentioned the web site had been launched prematurely.

The voluntary program had been two and a half years in the making and had been accepted by the forum of state, federal and New Zealand ministers with oversight of food. The forum even took the unusual stage of voting to approve the program at the final December meeting.

All public stakeholder groups were told the website would be published last week but inside of hrs Furnival rang the department to have it taken down.

The Guardian understands that when employees refused simply because they had been underneath orders from the ministerial forum rather than the minister, Furnival went to the Department of Health’s senior executive ranks to intervene.

Nash produced the unusual move of including to her query time response in the Senate adjournment debate just prior to 9pm on Tuesday.

“In brief, each Mr Furnival and Ms Cain have taken appropriate and suitable methods to prevent conflicts or prospective conflicts between the personal enterprise and his duties as my chief of personnel by withdrawing from any work for customers in the health portfolio,” she mentioned.

“At the time of answering Senator Wong’s question I did not have each detail of this details at hand, but, getting made more checks soon after question time I offer this details to the Senate.”

APA is a partnership registered with NSW Honest Trading. NSW Fair Trading data present APA’s partners are APA Pty Ltd, Strategic Troubles Management Pty Ltd and Centre for Litigation Communications Pty Ltd.

Asic paperwork display that Furnival is a director of Strategic Concerns Management Pty Ltd along with Tracey Cain, who is also secretary.

The chief executive of the Public Health Association, Michael Moore, explained it was clear that some influence had been “brought to bear” and consumer and wellness advocates would be pushing to have the website reinstated.

“We had been really appalled and shocked when it came down,” said Moore, who was an independent member in the ACT Legislative Assembly and a former wellness minister.

“There is plainly politics but we just to get the web site back up. We have a voluntary code that some elements of the business desires to get up.

“This was a method in place prepared to go and some influence had been brought to bear to deliver it down.”

Fiona Nash confirms chief of personnel has interest in wife’s foods lobbying firm