Question to the Attorney General:

Whether his Department has received representations on the incorporation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into Scots law.

The Member for East Renfrewshire will be aware of my decision, alongside the Advocate General’s for Scotland, to refer the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill to the Supreme Court on legislative competence grounds. We have also referred the European Charter of Local Self-Government (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill.

It would not be appropriate for me to comment in detail on what are live proceedings.

Ultimately, our concerns with regards to these Bills do not relate to their policy content, nor to the approach the Scottish Parliament has taken in incorporating these international agreements into Scots law. Rather they relate to specific provisions in the Bill and whether they fall outside the Scottish Parliament’s legislative powers.