Abandon plans for a state snooper scheme now, Sillars tells SNP

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THE SNP has received a warning to back down over its plans to redraft a controversial ‘state snooper’ scheme rejected by the Supreme Court.

The Named Person legislation was deemed unlawful in a judgment last year, forcing ministers to go back to the drawing board.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney is expected to roll out the adapted legislation by the summer with the aim of bringing it into force next year.

But former SNP deputy leader Jim Sillars yesterday called for the entire 103-section legislation to be abandoned, calling it ‘intrusive’ to families.

Speaking at a conference held by NO2NP, the group which led the legal challenge, Mr Sillars said Holyrood should follow in the footsteps of UK Chancellor Philip Hammond, who last week performed a U-turn on a planned National Insurance hike following protests.

At the meeting in Edinburgh, Mr Sillars said: ‘I have philosophical objections to this legislation.

‘My advice to the government would be to do a Hammond – last week the Government at Westminster was in a hole, and it had the brains to stop digging. My advice to this government is, this isn’t going to work. This is going to be a punishment on you over the years ahead. Stop digging, get out of the hole and abandon it.’

The scheme aims to allocate a named person – for example a teacher or a health worker – to all under-18s to monitor their wellbeing.

But it was rejected following the court judgment which said key parts of the initiative allowing information sharing fell foul of European human rights laws.

Mr Sillars added: ‘If you’re going to have a free country, you have to accept an enormous diversity of views, and above all, the anchor is the family.

‘But there isn’t a single model of a family anyone can point to.

‘No named person can carry out their responsibility under the act unless they are intrusive to the family. It’s impossible.’

He also warned that the issue could become as toxic as the poll tax legislation introduced in Scotland in the 1989 by Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, adding: ’This could be the SNP’s poll tax, where events will emerge that will haunt them until the next Holyrood election. It will sour relations between the SNP government and millions of people.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘The Scottish Government remains committed to the Named Person service as a way to support children and young people by working in partnership with them and with families.

‘It ensures early support is available for all families because it is simply impossible to predict if or when people might need extra help.’