"Named person" judgment to be delivered in a week's time

Judgment on the legality of the Scottish Government's "named person" scheme will be delivered next Thursday, 28 July, the court has announced.

The decision will finally determine the compatibility with fundamental common law rights, and the European Convention on Human Rights, of the scheme enacted in the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014. Under the "named person service", every child and young person in Scotland (other than those serving in the UK Armed Forces) is to have an identified individual – "a named person" – available to exercise statutory functions, including providing advice, information or support, functions that must be exercised where the named person considers it to be appropriate in order to promote, support or safeguard the wellbeing of the child or young person.

It is proposed that health visitors, for children under school age, or teachers for children of school age, will normally fulfil this function. 

However the scheme was challenged by four registered charities and three individuals on the grounds that it purported to authorise unjustifiable state interference with family rights. Their petition for judicial review was dismissed by the Court of Session in both the Outer House and Inner House, but the challengers took their fight to the UK Supreme Court in March.

The proceedings have caused the Scottish Government to delay the implementation of the scheme from the intended date of 1 August 2016.