Nicola Sturgeon promises review of family law as SNP sets out commitments for pensioners

Nicola Sturgeon has pledged to launch a review of how family law in Scotland operates as part of a number of SNP commitments targeted at older voters.

The party said the review would look to “ensure the interests of children in maintaining relationships with key family members, particularly grandparents”.

Under current legislation, grandparents do not automatically have any parental responsibilities and rights, nor do they have any distinct legal status in relation to family law cases involving grandchildren.

In the final few weeks of the last parliamentary session Holyrood’s justice committee suggested a “wholesale review” of family law legislation may be required.

MSPs said family law cases would benefit from greater use of mediation and potentially from being heard by specialist law sheriffs.   

The commitment to a review came as the First Minister set out plans to fund a programme of “financial health check-ups” for those on low incomes, including older people, to ensure individuals know what support they are entitled to.

New powers over the winter fuel allowance will also be used to pay it earlier to the near 80,000 pensioner households in rural areas who live ‘off-grid’ and face higher costs as a result, said the SNP leader.

Social justice secretary Alex Neil last year promised that the winter fuel payment would not be abolished, cut or means tested once Holyrood is handing the power.

The pledge came after a Scottish Government paper suggested ministers were considering the eligibility criteria with alternative options including payments being converted into a fuel bill rebate or using the funding to provide warmer, more affordable homes.

Sturgeon said: “Not only will we protect older people’s incomes but we will also seek to maximise them through providing financial health checks for low-income households.

“Raising the income and independence of older people will also be key to our work tackling social isolation, as will our plans to review family law to ensure, as far as possible, that grandparents’ rights are considered and that they can retain the contact with their grandchildren that is sometimes denied to them.”