Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 - Less than two months to go!
It is less than two months until the Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme becomes a legal requirement.
Regulated roles. Your role, their safety.
In Scotland, a ‘regulated role’ refers to a position (paid and voluntary) that involves carrying out certain activities where you have contact with children or protected adults. This might be:
- jobs with caring responsibilities for children or protected adults
- teaching or supervising children or protected adults
- providing personal services to children or protected adults
- working directly with children or protected adults
Contact can be supervised or unsupervised, depending on the ‘regulated role’ . Some roles allow individuals to exert power or influence over children or protected adults to such a degree that occurs even if contact occurs within the presence of a ‘responsible person’ (for example, a parent/guardian or a teacher).
The Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme safeguards vulnerable people by ensuring that those individuals carrying out a regulated role are suitable to do so.
Examples of common ‘regulated roles’ are teachers, children’s football coaches and support workers.
From 1 April 2025, new regulated roles will be introduced. This means that individuals who carry out these roles must be a member of the PVG scheme to comply with legal requirements. Examples of new regulated roles are:
- sports and talent agents or scouts who work with children (under 18s) and represent children in future recruitment, training or employment with sports clubs or other organisations
- non-clinical hospital or hospice staff or volunteers who have unsupervised contact with children and/or protected adults
You must assess your organisation’s roles against the criteria for regulated roles. You can do this by reviewing the Disclosure Act schedules on ‘regulated roles’ with children and protected adults, and explanatory notes.
We will publish further guidance before 1 April 2025, however, you should carry out the assessment of your roles as soon as possible.
Our Customer Engagement Team (CET) can guide you in your assessment of whether your role(s) are regulated roles. To use this service, email DisclosureAct@disclosurescotland.gov.scot. The CET is also continuing their programme of training and events on the Disclosure Act – you can sign up for those on our events page.
Regulated roles activity - holding a position of responsibility
The full list of activities that relate to regulated roles are contained within the Disclosure Act. One such activity is a position of responsibility in an organisation where one of their main purposes is the provision of benefits to children and/or protected adults for example, a:
- trustee
- board member
- management committee member
Anyone in a regulated role carrying out an activity must have contact with children, protected adults or both as part of their role. Contact includes physical, visual, written or verbal communication or exercising power or influence over children and/or protected adults. Exercising power or influence’ means:
(a) assisting, facilitating, permitting or impeding progress towards a desirable objective or outcome for a particular child or protected adult
(b) making decisions of an operational or strategic nature that could have an impact on a number of children or protected adult
(c) persuading or putting pressure on a particular child or protected adult to behave or act in a certain manner for the financial gain or personal gratification of a person other than the child or protected adult
New offences
The PVG scheme will become a legal requirement on 1 April 2025. That means that from that date:
- anyone carrying out a regulated role must be a member of the PVG scheme for that type of work, for example, work with children and/or protected adults
- organisations must not offer any type of regulated role to an individual unless they have received a PVG scheme disclosure
The requirement for an organisation to confirm PVG scheme membership before an individual carries out a regulated role extends to situations where individuals are seeking to carry out a regulated role and intend to undertake a ’trial session’. In this scenario, PVG scheme membership is required before the individual carries out a regulated role, even when they are doing the role on a trial basis.
Legal requirement
There will be a grace period of three months after the PVG scheme becomes a legal requirement from 1 April 2025. This will ensure individuals and organisations don't commit an offence if there are individuals who are not PVG scheme members but are currently working in regulated roles.
From 1 July 2025 onwards, it will become a criminal offence for:
- individuals to carry out a regulated role if they are not a member of the PVG scheme
- organisations to offer a regulated role to an individual who is not a member of the PVG scheme
This adds to the existing offences under the PVG Act. It will continue to be an offence for an individual to seek, agree to do or carry out a regulated role if the individual is barred from working with children, protected adults or both. Similarly, organisations must not offer a regulated role to someone who is barred from that type of regulated role.
What you need to do if you work in Scotland and England
If you are carrying out a regulated role and work in Scotland and other parts of the UK, you are legally required to be a member of the PVG scheme, even if you have already been subject to a criminal record check by another agency, for example, the Disclosure and Barring Service or Access NI.
Remote working
Where a role is undertaken remotely, you should consider where the individual carrying out the role is based, for example:
- if the individual is based in Scotland, and is carrying out a ‘regulated role’ (involves an ‘activity’ and ‘contact’ as listed in the PVG Act) even if the children or protected adults themselves are based outwith Scotland a PVG scheme membership will be required
- if the individual is based outside of Scotland, is not someone normally resident in Scotland, and is remotely delivering a service to children and/or protected adults in Scotland, the service cannot be treated as a regulated role. That is the case even if the work involves an ‘activity’ and ‘contact’ as listed in the PVG Act
- if the individual is based elsewhere in the UK, appropriate checks may be available from the Disclosure and Barring Service or Access Northern Ireland
Tell Disclosure Scotland about your application volumes
Please notify our Customer Engagement Team directly with volumes of additional PVG scheme applications you expect to make as a result of the move to the PVG scheme becoming a legal requirement, and the introduction of ‘regulated roles’, from 1 April 2025. This will inform our resource planning to ensure that we maintain a similar level of service to all our customers.
Requirement for applicants to share their disclosure
From 1 April 2025, applicants will have more control over their information. The disclosure process will include a requirement for applicants to share a copy of their disclosure with the accredited body that countersigned the application, or to notify Disclosure Scotland that they will seek a review of the content of their disclosure.
Applicants must consent to share their disclosure with the Accredited body regardless of whether their disclosure contains any disclosure information. This will end the current process of applicant and countersignatory disclosures being shared at the same time.
Our Digital Team are currently developing this process, which will be in place from 1 April 2025.
Organisations should consider how they can adapt their current recruitment processes to maximise awareness of this new step for applicants that will help them control their own information.
Fees - Disclosure Scotland fees from 1 April 2025
Following our public consultation on fee waivers and discounts, we are delighted to announce that we will continue to provide free Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme membership for Qualifying Voluntary Organisation (QVO) volunteers.
This decision by Scottish Ministers recognises the vital role volunteers play in Scotland’s society with roles in care, health, sports, community and children’s recreational activities.
As well as retaining the QVO fee waiver, fees for the new Level 1 and Level 2 disclosure products from 1 April 2025 will remain at the broadly equivalent levels they have been at since 2011.
Our decision to retain existing disclosure fees was taken after balancing several factors, including affordability for customers - particularly those on the lowest incomes. This decision intends to support organisations providing vital services to children and protected adults.
You can read more about this in the news article on our website.
Public launch of Online Accounts
We have achieved its next key milestone in the public roll out of its Online Account service. More people across Scotland can now apply for a basic disclosure and view their disclosure online.
Basic disclosures play a vital role in supporting and growing Scotland’s economy. For businesses across Scotland this move will help streamline and speed up recruitment, stimulate business growth and help generate income by attracting the right candidate for the job.
Alongside basic disclosures, people can also apply and view their disclosures for the Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) membership scheme. Visit our website for more information on our online services.
What you need to do if you are currently a PVG scheme member
If you are already a PVG scheme member who is or intends to carry out a regulated role, you do not need to do anything ahead of 1 April 2025.
You do need to tell Disclosure Scotland if your personal details have changed. This will ensure that we hold accurate address and contact information for you. For information on how to update your PVG details, timescales and legal requirements please visit our website.