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Policy Context
1. Parts 1 and 2 of The Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Bill provide for a vetting and barring scheme which has the policy objectives of ensuring that:
- those who come into significant contact with Scotland's children and protected adults do not have a history of violent, sexual or abusive behaviour which indicates that they are not suitable to enjoy the trust we place in them;
- we can respond swiftly to new information suggesting a change in an individual's suitability;
- those who are proven to be unsuitable are prevented from gaining ready access to vulnerable people through employment or volunteering activities;
- the underlying processes are streamlined, efficient and minimise bureaucracy thereby minimising costs;
- we dovetail with developments in the rest of the UK to ensure that cross-border loopholes do not develop which could be exploited by those who would harm children or protected adults and that we avoid any part of the UK becoming a safe haven for dangerous and damaging individuals;
- Scotland meets the principal recommendation of the Bichard Inquiry Report into the murder of the Soham schoolgirls that 'new arrangements should be introduced requiring those who work with children or vulnerable adults to be registered.'
2. The Bill's provisions build on the foundations laid by Part 5 of the Police Act 1997 which introduced a system of vetting the workforce. This has been delivered through Disclosure Scotland since April 2002. Its provisions also build on the Protection of Children (Scotland) Act 2003 which introduced the Disqualified from Working with Children List. The two systems provide a solid starting point but the existing vetting and disqualification arrangements are unconnected and do not offer the maximum scope for robust protections. At a practical level, employers and individuals are frustrated by the current multiple disclosure situation.
3. The new vetting and barring scheme provided for in the Bill strengthens the existing processes and provides more efficient safeguards and protections. It achieves the three inter-connected core components of robust protection, namely:
- the information which is used to assess a person's unsuitability to occupy a particular post working with a vulnerable group (conviction information and non-conviction information such as the police intelligence that was available on Ian Huntley but not taken into account in deciding his suitability to be a school janitor);
- continuously updating that information on the workforce, so that we can remove the current bureaucratic burden of multiple disclosures and so that new information is reviewed for its relevance;
- linking individuals to organisations, recognising that some people may play several roles (e.g. a supply teacher in several different local authorities and a scout leader in the evenings) and that people move and change jobs over time.
4. Additionally, the Bill creates, for the first time in Scotland, a list of individuals unsuitable to do care work with adults. It is hard to dispute the need for protection for our vulnerable individuals in Scotland whether children or adult. As with children, we expect only a small minority to be unfit to work with protected adults but it is important to take reasonable steps to identify such individuals and prevent them abusing their position to exploit those in need of greatest protection.
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