In response to media coverage and discussion on social media today, Council Leader Adam McVey issued the following statement:
Cllr McVey said:
Contrary to allegations circulating online today, the Council does not have an anti-abortion stance or any policy prohibiting colleagues from accessing healthcare information about abortion services. The network fully enables access to the NHS Scotland and NHS Inform sites, the primary health information websites in Scotland.
Like every large organisation, the Council uses web-filtering software to improve cyber-security and to protect our staff but this can occasionally result in sites being inadvertently blocked. This was the case with the British Pregnancy Advisory Service's website and was an unintentional output of the system. The team are grateful for this being brought to their attention and this is being rectified as a priority to ensure colleagues can freely access the charity’s resources through the Council’s network. The team are also taking the opportunity to review which other sites and resources which may be being blocked so that these can be made accessible by colleagues too.