MORAY MP Douglas Ross has accused the SNP of failing families with their much-criticised Named Person Scheme which was dubbed unmanageable and which the SNP has today been forced to scrap as it has proven unworkable in law.
Commenting, Douglas said: “SNP Deputy First Minister John Swinney has been forced to announce their information sharing code of practice is being scrapped after a panel set up by the Scottish Government ruled that the scheme was unable to operate within the boundaries of the law. Moray MSP Richard Lochhead backed this policy from the beginning, ignoring local concerns and the opinions of many experts. I hope now, even he can see how damaging this policy has been for Moray families. But there remains serious questions about how much of tax payers money has been wasted on this flawed scheme.
“The SNP just wouldn’t listen when the implications of sharing data and information was highlighted and pressed ahead with this hated and ill thought out scheme regardless. John Swinney even had the cheek to say that anyone who questioned its viability was scare-mongering but he was wrong. He has blamed data protection rules but a Supreme Court ruled it breached European Human Rights legislation three years ago, well before the introduction of GDPR legislation, yet he continued to press ahead.
“This scheme has been a waste of time and proved to be unworkable as the law would require that parents and children would need to give their permission before their information can be shared. The SNP has let children and vulnerable people down badly by pressing ahead with this regardless of the consequences.
“Today has shown up yet another disaster by an SNP Government which is out of touch with reality and failed to listen. Scottish Conservatives were right to vote against these plans at every opportunity.
“The SNP are failing Moray and they are failing Scotland. As if things weren’t bad enough this has happened in the same week when they have had to announce a public inquiry to examine safety and wellbeing issues at the new children's hospital in Edinburgh and the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.”