TAXPAYERS may have to pick up a £500,000 bill after the Supreme Court ruled against a key part of the Scottish Government’s named person scheme.

The five judges whose decision led to the state guardian scheme being delayed and rewritten have ruled that the Government should pick up the legal bill for the high-profile case.

Campaign group No to Named Persons (NO2NP) challenged the Government policy and secured a partial victory after the Supreme Court decided that part of the new proposal was inconsistent with human rights provisions.

The NO2NP estimate that their legal costs, which come to around £250,000, on top of the Government’s own bill, will take the total to around £500,000.

NO2NP spokesman Simon Calvert said: “The Government has been hammered on costs. This is a total and utter vindication of the legal action that we were involved in, and underlines how deeply flawed this illegal scheme was.

“The Scottish Government argued we should pay our own costs. But the judges disagreed, awarding us our costs, further proving that we have been right all along.

A Government spokesperson said: “The policy aim of providing a Named Person service has been judged by the Supreme Court to be entirely legitimate. The Supreme Court’s ruling requires changes to be made specifically to the information sharing provisions of the 2014 Act. The nature of the ruling means that it is likely that Scottish Ministers may incur costs at a level yet to be determined."