About the Bill
This Scottish Government Bill was introduced by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, John Swinney MSP, on 19 June 2017.
The Bill seeks to amend the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 on the provision of information in relation to the named person service and the preparation and implementation of child’s plans.
Read the Bill and accompanying documents, including the policy memorandum and details of the financial impact of the Bill.
The Bill provides for a Code of Practice that will be used by organisations/individuals within those organisations responsible for deciding whether they hold relevant information and whether they should share it. An illustrative draft of the Codes of Practice has been published alongside the Bill and can be found on the Scottish Government's website.
September 2019
On 19 September 2019 the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills made a statement to Parliament to announce that the Scottish Government were withdrawing the Children and Young People (Information Sharing) (Scotland) Bill.
Links to a letter to the Convener of the Education and Skills Committee from the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, the Ministerial statement, the report from the GIRFEC Practice Development Panel and the Scottish Government response to the report are noted below.
SPICe Briefings
Stage 1
The Education and Skills Committee has been designated the lead committee for this bill.
Evidence
The Committee took evidence from September to November on the Bill
Read the written submissions at the link below.
You can read the Committee meeting papers below.
You can watch the evidence sessions at the Committee meetings below.
Read the official report for the Committee meetings below
A focus group was held at the Scottish Parliament on the evening of the 31st October 2017. We had input from 22 individuals representing a variety of professions who have direct experience of working with Children and Young Peoplr.
Correspondence
The Convener wrote to the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills on 7 July 2017 and the Committee received a response from the Cabinet Secretary for education and Skills on the 26 July 2017. The letter contained questions among other things, amendments to the Bill and the consultation on the code of practice (page 3 of letter).
The Convener wrote to the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills regarding the Code of Practice on 21 September 2017.
The Convener wrote to the Information Commisioner's Office for information regarding the data protection act impact on the Code of Practice on 4 October 2017
The Convener sought the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills' views on the Information Commissioner's Office's letter of 13 October 2017.
The Cabinet Secretary wrote to the Convener is advance of appearing before the Committee to give evidence on the 8 November 2017.
The Convener wrote to the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills regarding the implications of the commencements provisions in the Bill.
The Convener wrote to the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skillls requesting that a draft code of practice be provided before the Committee can report on the Bill at Stage 1.
The Convener wrote to the Presiding Officer and to the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills regarding the Stage one deadline for the Bill.
The Committee has exchanged correspondence with the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills in relation to a number of Scottish Government freedom of information responses regarding the Government's engagement with stakeholders.
The Government has sent two revised versions of Annexe C for the Cabinet Secretary's letter of 15th March.
The following FOI release was issued by Parliament on 15 May 2018 and includes emails with the Government held by the Education and Skills Committee clerks. These are in addition to those released by the Government under the FOI release above (dated 15 March 2018).
www.scottish.parliament.uk/help/FOIDisclosureFiles/606119/2018-606119Reply.pdf
Following formal conclusion of the Committee’s scrutiny of the issue of contact with witnesses, 6 members of the Committee wrote to the Cabinet Secretary in relation to Government contact with witnesses on 26 April 2018.
The Cabinet Secretary responded on 22 May 2018.
The Cabinet Secretary also sent a copy of a letter from the Permanant Secretary to the Information Commissioner.
Letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills on timescales for the production of a draft Code of Practice (received 12 July 2018).
The clerks have received a copy of a letter from the Chair of the Code of Practice Panel to the Cabinet Secretary relating to the timing of the consultation on the draft Code.
The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills wrote to the Converner enclosing correspondence from the Chair of the Code of Practice Panel and the Cabinet Secrtary's response. The response from the Committee to the Cabinet Secretary's letter of the 17 January is noted below.
The Convener wrote to the Chair of the Code of Practice panel regarding practitioner involvement on the panel. The response from the Chair of the the Code of practice panel is noted below.
Work by other Committees
The Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee heard from the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills in respect of the Children and Young People (Information Sharing) (Scotland) Bill on 19 September 2017.
The Finance and Constitution Committee gathered evidence on the estimated financial impact of the Children and Young People (Information Sharing) (Scotland) Bill.