Humza Yousaf's family drops discrimination case against nursery

The couple spoke in August after they made a complaint about the nursery

Scotland's health secretary has dropped a £30,000 case against a nursery he accused of discrimination.

Humza Yousaf and his wife, councillor Nadia El-Nakla, claimed to have been told there was no space for their daughter at Little Scholars in Broughty Ferry.

They alleged applicants with "white Scottish-sounding names" were accepted, a claim the nursery denied.

The couple's legal representative confirmed court proceedings had ceased.

A legal writ had been lodged at Glasgow Sheriff Court in November 2021.

It followed the Care Inspectorate upholding a formal complaint made by Mr Yousaf and Ms El-Nakla, who was elected as an SNP councillor in Dundee last year.

The body found the nursery "did not promote fairness, equality and respect" when offering placements.

• Nursery in 'discrimination' row sued for £30,000

• Minister reports nursery over discrimination fears

In response to the legal case being dropped, Little Scholars Day Nursery owner Usha Fowdar said: "Ms El-Nakla has, very sensibly, opted to drop her legal action in the face of our determination to defend ourselves and our hard-working employees.

"While I'm pleased our employees will be spared the stress of appearing as witnesses, in one sense I'm also disappointed, as the court case would have been extremely revealing and I'm utterly confident we would have prevailed.

"Despite this vindication, it has been deeply upsetting to have spent almost 18 months and tens of thousands of pounds defending our small nursery against their false claims."

A statement issued on behalf of Ms El-Nakla and Mr Yousaf said the legal proceedings were halted following discussions with Sword Nursery Ltd, the firm that owns the nursery.

The nursery denies allegations of discrimination

The couple's legal representative, solicitor Aamer Anwar, said: "They only ever wanted the nursery to accept the findings of the Independent Care Inspectorate investigation and for the nursery to make changes.

"The nursery owner's may wish to say that they were prepared 100% to go to court, but this was a joint agreement reached and on their acknowledgement of the findings of an independent investigation and implementing the necessary changes in full."

He added: "Nadia believes that as a mother she was justified in raising this legal action, she felt deeply hurt and hopes that as a result real change will take place."

Following the initial concerns from Mr Yousaf and his wife, a Daily Record investigation submitted applications with identical requirements to the nursery under the names Aqsa Akhtar and Susan Blake.

• Minister's nursery complaint upheld

The newspaper said that Aqsa Akhtar had her application rejected, but Susan Blake's was accepted and offered spaces.

Ms El-Nakla said she had emailed nursery bosses in May 2021, asking if there were any available places.

The couple alleged they were told there were "no available spaces in the nursery" - the second time they said they had been turned down.

But they claimed that two days later when a white friend asked if there were spaces for her two-year-old son, the nursery told her places were available on three afternoons a week.

In August 2021, little Scholars Day Nursery said that any claim that it was not open and inclusive to all was "demonstrably false".