Wider implications of the named person law

"Increasingly, across Britain, the different jurisdictions are creating new legal definitions of what the perfect child and family should look like. These definitions are becoming so narrow that even the scope for different styles of parenting are being more and more limited. Just last week a new criminal offence of inflicting "emotional harm", which will be impossible to police fairly, was announced in the Queen’s speech. But Scotland has clearly led the way with intrusive policy by assigning every a child a named person to look after their interests."

"There are two key powers that come with the named person. First is the power to collect any amount of sensitive and personal information about a child for the widest possible reason."

"This power had already been curbed by the landmark 2013 "Haringey Judgment", which found that child protection services cannot act without the explicit consent of the parents unless there is actual evidence of a child being at risk. Arguably, Scotland should have incorporated this judgment into the power of the named person."

"The second key power of the proposed named person law is that parents cannot opt out of having a named person. Outside of the security services, all engagement with state officials is strictly "opt in" unless there is evidence that a law has been broken. Legally, parents can even refuse the services of a health visitor if they so wish."

http://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/letters/wider-implications-of-named-person-law-1-3437291