Your Organisation's Legal Responsibilities

Disclosure Scotland has rules about how people must use disclosure information, set out in their Code of Practice.

The code applies to people who deal with disclosure information in organisations. Disclosure information covers any criminal history information included on PVG Scheme checks, Basic, Standard or Enhanced Checks.

Following the code is a legal responsibility, which means that by not following it, you may be committing an offence.

As an employer you have certain legal duties regarding:

• Usage, handling, access, storage, retention, and disposal. You should have a policy on this. A sample policy can be found here. You should never retain a certificate in an employee's personnel file. If required to retain, it should be kept in a secure, non-portable storage or restricted electronic storage.
• If you obtain PVGs, your business has a legal Duty to Refer employees/volunteers that cause harm or risk of harm to a child or protected adult. It is best practice to have a PVG referral policy in place. Scottish Disclosures can assist you with this.

Following best practice for your business, you should also:

• Use vetting information fairly when deciding whether to employ someone. Scotland Works for You is a helpful guide for employers when considering people with convictions.
• Have a written policy describing how your organisation manages disclosure information. Scottish Disclosures can assist you with this.
• Obtain your own copy of a PVG Scheme Record, even if the person is already a PVG Scheme member through another organisation.
• Tell Disclosure Scotland when a PVG member leaves the organisation.
• Have a written policy describing how your business manages disclosure information. Scottish Disclosures can assist you with this.
• Only keep disclosure certificates as long as they are needed.

You should not:

• Rely only on disclosure checks when deciding if someone is suitable for a post.
• Ask applicants to tell you about all their spent and unspent convictions. It's against the law to ask applicants to tell you about all their convictions. They only have to declare the ones relevant to the job they're applying for.

If you have any questions or require further guidance, Scottish Disclosures can assist via info@scottish-disclosures.co.uk

Thank you for your commitment to upholding the highest standard in safeguarding and data protection within your business.