Scottish Government should ‘revisit’ its approach to named persons, Scottish Parliament’s Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee says

Scottish Parliament - Image credit: Holyrood

The Scottish Government should “revisit its approach” to the code of practice for named person information sharing, the Scottish Parliament’s Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee has said.

The committee called for the Scottish Government to consider letting the Scottish Parliament vote on the final version of the code.

Including the code of practice in subordinate legislation rather than simply as supplementary guidance would give MSPs the opportunity to scrutinise and approve it before it is published.

RELATED CONTENT

• New named person legislation will be introduced by summer
• Government to press ahead with Named Person law despite court ruling against it
• Never mind named person, an innovative idea is already ignored

Commenting on the report published today by the DPLR Committee, convener Graham Simpson said: “We explored the code of practice with the Deputy First Minister who viewed it as an explanatory document. 

“Our committee considers the code to be more significant than that. 

“It has a central role in the operation of the sharing of information about children and young people, and it places obligations upon professional people such as social workers, teachers and health care employees. 

“Given its significance we welcome the opportunity provided in the bill to comment on the draft code, but we recommend that the Government revisits its approach to the code of practice. 

“Specifically, we want it to consider including the code in subordinate legislation and, more importantly, giving the Parliament a vote on the final version.”

The Scottish Government’s named person proposals have been controversial, with the Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that aspects of the scheme would breach rules about consent for data sharing.