TAXPAYERS are facing a £500,000 legal bill over the Scottish Government’s botched attempt to introduce a named person for every child.
The Supreme Court, which ruled parts of the scheme unlawful earlier this year, has awarded full costs against the SNP government, which had repeatedly denied it was flawed.
The ruling means the public purse will now pick up the £250,000 legal costs of the No to Named Persons (NO2NP) Group, which challenged the legislation.
The government’s own legal costs are estimated to be in the same region.
NO2NP spokesman Simon Calvert said the costs ruling was a “total and utter vindication of the legal action” by the group, which also won it the Campaigner of the Year title at last month’s Herald Scottish Politician of the Year Awards.
The Supreme Court ruled in July that key parts of the state guardian scheme were illegal.
The five judges said that, while the concept of a name person to ensure the wellbeing of every child, was well-intentioned, its plan to share sensitive data among numerous agencies breached rights to privacy and a family life under the European Convention
The ruling forced Education Secretary John Swinney to put the scheme, which had been due to begin in August, on hold and undertake a period of “intense consultation” on improvements.
The government said: “The nature of the ruling is that it is likely that ministers may incur costs at a level yet to be determined. Ministers remain committed to the named person service.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel