Numerous public meetings have been held across Scotland since 2013, all of which have heard from victims of unlawful data collection and sharing under public and third sector policies and which have led to a loss of trust in services among families.
Following the introduction of the Children and Young People (Information Sharing) (Scotland) Bill, Tymes Trust and the Scottish Home Education Forum submitted written evidence to the Education and Skills Committee on behalf of their own service users and other families who had attended meetings or otherwise made contact. Following an alternative evidence-gathering exercise which drew 90+ submissions, a briefing report was relayed to the Education and Skills Committee, which included a call for a public inquiry into the circumstances which led to the embedding of the lower, unlawful threshold of ‘wellbeing’ to enable non-consensual information-processing under the GIRFEC policy. The Convener subsequently responded to the effect that the Committee had not “given specific consideration to the issue” and “cannot comment” on the request for a public inquiry.