Lessons on legislating for public protection information sharing: A case commentary on Christian Institute v Lord Advocate [2016] UKSC 51

The decision of the UK Supreme Court in Christian Institute temporarily undermines the Scottish initiative referred to as the named persons scheme - a programme of information governance that will likely (in time) facilitate the sharing of information (and impliedly sensitive personal data) about vulnerable children in Scotland between different child welfare and public protection agencies. The Scottish government already have a blueprint, however, of the legal shortcomings of the relevant information sharing provisions of Part 4 of the Children and Young Persons 9Scotland) Act 2014, since the judgment of the Supreme Court in Christian Institute is very clear and precise in delineating exactly which information rights are lacking in specificity in the scheme as originally legislated by the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood. This case commentary piece seeks to place the decision in Christian Institute in a wider context with regard to the way the courts treat challenges to public protection information sharing on the basis of European data protection law or Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.