Explanatory Notes

Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007

2007 asp 14

18 April 2007

Overview

Part 2: Vetting and Disclosure

Section 57.  Disclosure restrictions

105.There are no restrictions on disclosure of information provided by the police to the Scottish Ministers since they will only provide information which they are content to be disclosed to the individual and any employer. All police information provided to the Scottish Ministers (as the Vetting and Disclosure Unit) will be used in any consideration for listing (by the Scottish Ministers as the Central Barring Unit).

106.Section 57(1) provides the Scottish Ministers with the flexibility to limit the content of scheme records and to exclude from the disclosure of a scheme record certain types of information which may be contained on it. This power enables the Scottish Ministers to keep sensitive information on the scheme record without disclosing it to employers. Such sensitive information would, of course, have to be disclosed to the individual as part of any consideration for listing.

107.Section 57(2) and (3) restrict the disclosure of information on, or information about additions or deletions to, a scheme record to information provided for the purpose of assessing the individual’s suitability for that type of regulated work. In many cases, information will be relevant to both types of regulated work. However, there may be information, for example released by the police when applying the relevance test for working with protected adults, which they would not have released when applying the relevance test for working with children.