13. Will employers become overly risk averse? For example, what would happen if someone has a driving conviction on their scheme record?
The purpose of the PVG Scheme is to keep those who might harm vulnerable groups out of the regulated workforce. It provides an enhanced tool to help employers make safe and balanced recruitment decisions and therefore, help them to minimise any risk to children or protected adults. Employers can have confidence that, if a person is a member of the scheme, they are not unsuitable to work in that workforce. Hopefully that will make them less risk averse in deciding whether the individual is suitable for a particular post. However, the final decision about suitability must sit with employers. A driving conviction would be unlikely to lead to a person being considered unsuitable for regulated work. However it may make a person unsuitable for a particular post that involves driving.