The Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme is a national membership scheme, managed by Disclosure Scotland (established in 2011) that aims to ensure that those who are unsuitable to work with children and protected adults cannot carry out regulated work with these vulnerable groups.
From 1 April 2025, the Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 rules around PVG scheme membership are updated. PVG scheme membership will now become a legal requirement; it is therefore imperative that businesses in Scotland understand their legal obligations under the new PVG scheme membership.
What is the PVG scheme?
The PVG scheme is a way to ensure that anyone working with children or protected adults is suitable for the role.
Individuals who are employed to do regulated work may be asked by their employer to join the PVG scheme. Once a member of the PVG scheme, Disclosure Scotland will carry out a criminal record check, the results of which can assist employers in determining whether or not the individual is suitable for the role. Disclosure Scotland keeps a list of people who are barred from working with children and protected adults, and this will be flagged in the checks.
Once a member of the scheme, Disclosure Scotland will continue to check an individual’s suitability to work with children and protected adults and if circumstances change, they can bar the individual from regulated work and will remove them from the PVG scheme.
From 1 April 2025, the Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 will be implemented and will change several aspects of the PVG scheme.
Changes to compliance
PVG membership will become a legal requirement for individuals when carrying out a regulated role with children and protected adults, even if they are doing the role on a trial basis. There will be a three-month grace period from the implementation of the Act for all relevant individuals to join the PVG scheme.
From 1 July 2025, it will become an offence for anyone carrying out a regulated role to do so whilst not a member of the PVG scheme. It will also be an offence for organisations to offer any type of regulated role to an individual unless they have received a PVG scheme disclosure.
Committing either of the above noted offences could result in fines or imprisonment for up to five years, or both.
It will continue to be an offence (as is currently the case) for individuals to seek, agree to do or carry out a regulated role if the individual is barred from working with children and/or protected adults, and organisations must not offer a regulated role to someone barred from that type of role.
Definitions
The term ‘children’ will continue to refer to individuals under the age of 18, whereas ‘protected adult’ will now refer to an individual who is aged 18 or over and is receiving the services outlined above.
Transition from ‘regulated work’ to ‘regulated roles’
The term regulated work will be replaced by regulated roles, which will broaden the current framework and expand the scope of positions requiring PVG membership. Regulated roles will refer to roles where an individual has regular contact with or influence over children or protected adults. Regulated roles will be determined in broadly the same way as regulated work, but with additional clarifications so as to include sports and talent agents who deal with and represent children in recruitment, training or employment; and non-clinical health or hospice staff or volunteers who have unsupervised contact with patients.
The full list of activities that relate to regulated roles can be found within the Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020.
Holding a position of responsibility
PVG membership will be required of trustees, board members and management committee members in an organisation where one of their main purposes is the provision of benefits to children and/or protected adults.
Restriction on membership
From 1 April 2026, PVG scheme memberships will be limited to 5 years and individuals will be required to renew their membership every 5 years in order to continue working in regulated roles.
Preparing for the changes
In preparation for the incoming changes, it is important that businesses ensure that any paid or unpaid employees aged 16 and over in regulated roles are members of the PVG scheme.
Moving forward, businesses should consider reviewing, implementing and, if necessary, updating their recruitment and screening processes to ensure a robust mechanism for compliance. Businesses should also ensure they have a system in place to maintain accurate records of PVG memberships and regularly undertake audits to avoid any breaches.
For the protection of both employer and employee, job descriptions should be clear on whether the role is a regulated one and therefore whether PVG scheme membership is required.
Full details of the changes can be found on Disclosure Scotland’s website at www.disclosure.gov.scot