Campaigners and politicians were spinning so much they were in danger of nausea after the Supreme Court’s verdict on the Scottish Government’s Named Person scheme.
So let’s get one thing straight. This was judged to be unlawful because it is bad legislation.
It was not found to be bad policy, immoral, or proof we are living in a “totalitarian state”.
This was sloppy law-making and it exposes the lack of scrutiny applied by Holyrood.
The judges declared that, in its current form, part of the Act is incompatible with Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects private and family life, because of a lack of protections with regard to privacy and confidentiality.
They highlighted the lack of safeguards in the new legislation, including the lack of a statutory requirement, qualified or otherwise, “to inform the parents of a child about the sharing of information”.
Serious issues have been flagged up but these could have been easily solved with a bit of rigour around the government’s proposals.
Why did no legal eagle spot the human rights issues as the legislation was being prepared? Why was it not flagged up and dealt with at committee level?
All of this is eminently fixable. If you believe in the policy, it is far from a disaster as the go ahead will be given once these problems are addressed.
It must be done properly on this occasion, however, otherwise the legislation will lose any shred of credibility it currently clings on to.
