Work on a bill to incorporate a U.N. treaty on children’s rights into Scots law will continue despite the original being sent back to Holyrood by the UK Supreme Court, Deputy First Minister John Swinney has said.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill passed unanimously earlier this year but was referred by the UK Government to the country’s highest court in order to assess if the legislation was within the scope of the Scottish Parliament.
In a judgment on Wednesday, Supreme Court justices insisted they did not take issue with the Scottish Parliament’s decision to incorporate these sets of standards—but that the manner in which the bills had sought to do this “breaches the limitations imposed on the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament by the Scotland Act.”
In a statement to Holyrood, the Deputy First Minister said: “There is no doubt that the implications of this judgment are significant, from a children’s rights perspective and in terms of this government and indeed this parliament’s aspiration for the country we want our children to grow up in.
“The Scottish Government remains absolutely committed to the incorporation of the UNCRC into Scots law to the maximum extent possible.
“We want to ensure that we pursue that policy in a way that can be enacted and therefore made real in practice.”
He added: “It is regrettable that this Bill has been delayed and will not now become law in the form which our parliament has agreed.”
Another bill, which was also passed unanimously and sought to incorporate the European Charter of Local Self-Government, was also found not to be in the competence of the Scottish Parliament.
Originally introduced by former independent MSP Andy Wightman, Green MSP Mark Ruskell will now act as the lead member on the bill.
Tory MSP Donald Cameron said his party warned that some parts of the bill would be “legally problematic.”
