An Edinburgh mum whose vulnerable son went missing after using his Young Scot card to board several buses has hit out after being told his card could not be tracked on a weekend.
Sarah Dwyer's son Danny recently went missing from Niddrie after failing to come home following a trip to the local library. After six days he was finally traced as far as the Highlands.
With friends and family beside themselves searching the local area, Sarah claims she was informed that the Scot Pass data used to track the activity of Young Scot cards was 'inaccessible over the weekend'.
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As a result, Sarah did not know if Danny had boarded a bus after coming out the library, and insists he would have been found much sooner if they made the crucial discovery earlier in the search.
Danny, 19, disappeared around 10.30am on Wednesday, June 7, and only six days later did Sarah find out that he had boarded a bus in the area and made it all the way to Caithness.
Speaking to Edinburgh Live on Monday, June 12, after being informed of Danny's whereabouts, Sarah hit out at the authorities' inability to track his card and says she was told by the police nothing could be done over the weekend.
Hoping to shed light on the issue and warn parents of other vulnerable children, the 43-year-old marketing professional said: "I think there is a story here in connection with every parent in Scotland whose child has access to a Young Scot card.
"What we probably don't know is that over a weekend when children are more likely to go AWOL, that there is a period of 48 hours where you will not be able to track your child so god forbid, like me, if the worse happens and six days later I don't know whether Danny came out of the library and turned left or went into a playing field and got into bad situation.
"Or did he turn right and get on a bus? Six days that took for us to get that data. The council are doing a great service by allowing our young Scots to travel for free but parents might not know that 48 hours could go by and your son or daughter could be in Caithness or Corstorphine.
"That data gap is an issue and it is not a duty of care. We now know where Danny is but we don't want to spook him. He has gone up to the Highlands the now the police need to intercept the bus and bring him home."
Sarah said she was beside herself for the past six days not knowing whether Danny was safe or not and it is only thanks to the data that was inaccessible over the weekend that Danny was eventually traced.
She added that within an hour, she had it confirmed by UK Border Force that her son had not passed through the border, but it took six days to figure out he took a bus after coming out of the library.
Sarah continued: "If you're going to give people with autism and people who are vulnerable freedom to roam the entire country then you've got to provide the data if they go missing, it's not fair.
"You can't have a search from Caithness to Niddrie it's not possible. Those hours are critical, everyone knows those first few hours are critical. Is he with someone? Has he been captured? Is he under the influence?
"As a parent all those things go through your mind and if you have your hands tied for 48 hours it's not right.
"Children go missing every moment of every day, you can't just decide at the weekend 'sorry you're not accessing that data'. We were all out looking including my 80-year-old mother.
"At the same time you don't know if he is nearby or somewhere else. You're assuming the worst but you just don't know. If we knew he got on a bus we'd think 'let's target the Highlands' and Facebook groups up there.
"The flood of help from parents and friends was amazing. I had the borders checked within an hour and knew if he was flown out of the country in that time but checking if he got a bus took more than 48 hours."
Sarah says Danny has never vanished for this amount of time but has travelled to the Highlands in the past making the data even more crucial to tracing his whereabouts.
Edinburgh Live understands that the City of Edinburgh Council is not responsible for accessing the Scot Pass data nor are Lothian Buses.
Transport Scotland have a data sharing agreement in place with Police Scotland which covers high risk missing persons and serious crime, however they do not hold personal data in relation to the National Entitlement Card.
They added Police Scotland would need to request card details from The National Entitlement Programme Office in order to trace journeys made.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Police Scotland treats all missing people with the utmost seriousness. People go missing for a multitude of reasons, all of which are assessed.
“Enquiries to trace them are based on a proportionate response depending on individual circumstances and officers use a wide range of technology as part of this.”
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