Elected Member Briefing - Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 Implementation

About this Briefing Note

Report by: Pauline Johnstone, People & Culture Manager

EMBN Number: 042-25

Date: 11 April 2025

Subject: Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 Implementation

Details

Purpose

This briefing note provides information on the Council's arrangements for the implementation of the Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020, which amends the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007.  

Briefing Information

The majority of the Disclosure (Scotland) Act was implemented on 1 April 2025 and to ensure compliance, our existing arrangements have been updated in the form of a revised Disclosure and Protection of Vulnerable Groups Framework.  

The key purpose of the Act is to protect the public, while balancing the need for people to move on from offending by simplifying the process for disclosing criminal history information. 

1 April 2025 is a major milestone for implementation, on this date: 

• The current basic, standard, enhanced and protection of vulnerable groups (PVG) disclosure levels have been replaced with 'Level 1' and 'Level 2' checks. Visit the Disclosure Scotland (DS) website to find out more about the new levels, along with the disclosed information that will be shared.  

• 'Regulated work' has been replaced by 'regulated roles' and brings new regulated roles into the PVG scheme, such as non-clinical health staff or volunteers who have unsupervised contact with patients. An exercise is ongoing to identify any new roles that may require employees to become a member of the PVG scheme. There is a short, 3-month grace period to allow for applications to be submitted by 1 July 2025.    

• It is now a legal requirement to be a member of the PVG scheme when carrying out a regulated role with children, protected adults or both. It will, therefore, be an offence for any new recruit to commence in a regulated role prior to being a member of the PVG scheme for that type of work.  Our current practice is that in most cases, employees do not start employment in regulated until all pre-employment checks have been satisfactorily completed. Existing arrangements for Elected Members who sit on relevant committees and require PVG scheme membership continue to meet the requirements of the new legislation. Only if a designated deputy, rather than an ad hoc substitute, undertakes this role would consideration require to be given to the need for PVG membership.  

• Individuals subject to checks can now ask for an independent review of some disclosure content and be able to explain the context for certain spent or childhood convictions before they are disclosed. Managers have been advised that this and the previous point may affect the time it takes to get a new recruit into post and to consider any operational impact this may have.   

• An individual must be at least 16 years of age for a check to be carried out (any level). Managers have been advised that if they are employing a young person under the age of 16 years, additional layers of protection may be required to safeguard the individual, the Council and protect vulnerable people.  

• A revised Code of Practice is also being implemented.  

The new arrangements, including some FAQs, are available in our Managers resourcing toolbox but if you still have a query after reading these, please contact PVGEnquiries@pkc.gov.uk in the first instance. 

Further, future changes 

Later this year, DS will be able to impose conditions on PVG scheme members who they are considering for listing and on 1 April 2026, lifetime PVG membership will end and be replaced with 5-year membership. Further details will be shared when available.  

If you are a PVG scheme member 

By law, you need to tell DS if your personal details have changed. This will ensure that DS holds accurate address and contact information for you.  

Information on how to update your PVG details, timescales and legal requirements is available on the DS website.