Chamber and committees

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

Disclosure Scotland has reviewed its letters, in connection with the consideration for listing (barring) process, to ensure they are written in Plain English and easier to understand. We have removed much of the ‘legal jargon’ where possible (not just for those who have experienced childhood trauma but for all individuals). We have also recently reviewed our letters which set out the reasons for listing to ensure these are easier to understand, again with less legal reference where possible. During the formal consideration process if we identify a potential vulnerability (which is not restricted to a history of care experience), Disclosure Scotland will reach out to relevant professionals, such as a social worker, to ensure we are communicating with the individual in the most appropriate and supportive way.

New processes for review applications under the Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 are due to be implemented in April 2025. Disclosure Scotland is engaging with Who Cares? Scotland, Children and Young People's Centre for Justice and Clan Childlaw about the effect on people who had justice-experience in childhood.

Good progress is being made in implementing the national-guidance-child-protection-scotland-2021-updated-2023.pdf (www.gov.scot) , which was published in 2021 and updated in 2023.

A National Child Protection Guidance Implementation Group was established in September 2021 for a period of 2 years to provide strategic oversight and offer support to local areas as they implemented the national guidance. A Monitoring and Evaluation subgroup of this implementation group was established to consider how to evaluate local and national implementation of the Guidance. The subgroup developed a self-evaluation tool for local Child Protection Committees (CPCs) to assess progress with implementation. The tool was completed by all CPCs in Autumn 2023 and the findings were analysed by the Centre for Excellence in Children’s Care and Protection (CELCIS) with the support of Scottish Government and the Care Inspectorate. This analysis identifies where progress has been made and where continuing changes and adaptations are required, and will be published on the CELCIS website in the near future.

Keeping children safe from child sexual abuse and exploitation, including online abuse, is a key priority for the Scottish Government.

We are committed to ensuring that our young people are safe online and our response is multi-faceted. It involves equipping children with the tools and skills they need to stay safe online, and supporting parents and carers to ensure that they have the information to guide children and recognise when a child is at risk. We equip professionals with the knowledge and skills to build children’s resilience, to recognise abuse and exploitation and respond with high quality support. This is accompanied by work to detect, disrupt and prosecute perpetrators and reduce re-offending.

In our schools, teachers deliver the technology experiences and outcomes area of the curriculum to provide learning on internet safety and cyber resilience. These help teachers support children to learn about the safe and responsible use of technologies, including the internet and social media, as part of their broad general education under our Curriculum for Excellence.

We are also committed to ensuring all children and young people receive high quality relationships and sexual health education to help them build safe and positive relationships as they grow older.

Public messaging is key in preventing online abuse. In March 2023, we re-ran our successful public awareness campaign which supported parents and carers to keep children safe online, emphasising the importance of talking regularly to children about online safety, setting safety measures and agreeing boundaries. The campaign had a strong impact on behaviour. Nine in ten of those who had seen the campaign reported taking action as a result of it, the highest rate of any Parent Club campaign.

This campaign linked to an Online Safety Hub on the SG Parent Club website, which provides information and advice on how to keep children safe from online harms.

Cross-Government workstreams collectively take action to prevent and protect children in Scotland from child sexual abuse and exploitation and provide appropriate support to victims and survivors of such abuse. This includes funding for a range of activity and programmes with a particular focus on prevention and early intervention. In particular, we provide funding to the Lucy Faithfull Foundation Scotland, to deliver online child sexual abuse prevention work.

The National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland 2021, updated in 2023 supports frontline workers in their prevention roles by defining and clarifying the roles and responsibilities for everyone working with children and young people, setting out the foundation for protective action to keep young people safe from harms including sexual abuse and exploitation.

In terms of those that seek to cause harm online, we are working with Police Scotland to find effective ways to deter potential perpetrators from committing online abuse in the first place.

Though regulation of the internet is a reserved matter and falls to the UK Government, the Scottish Government is committed to securing the online safety of our children and young people which is why the First Minister urged the UK Government to include additional measures in the Online Safety Act 2023 to protect children and vulnerable adults online and go further to encourage tech firms to design out illegal and harmful material.

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

The Age of Criminal Responsibility (Scotland) Act 2019 raised the age of criminal responsibility from 8 to 12 years old in Scotland. The Act sets out that information relating to a time before a person was 12 years old cannot be automatically disclosed on enhanced or PVG level disclosures without first being reviewed by the Independent Reviewer. As part of making their decision about the disclosure of pre-12 information, the Independent Reviewer must give the applicant the opportunity to make representations. The Independent Reviewer must take into account any representations made.

Under the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007, before making a decision to bar an individual from ‘regulated work’ with children or adults, Disclosure Scotland must give the individual an opportunity to make representations as to why they should not be listed. Disclosure Scotland must consider any such representations.

The Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 will allow applicants to challenge the disclosure of certain information, including ‘spent’ children’s hearing outcomes and convictions accrued in childhood, before it is shared with an employer. The applicant will be able to ask Disclosure Scotland to arrange for the Independent Reviewer to carry out a review of the disclosure of the spent childhood convictions or children’s hearing outcomes. As part of their review, the Independent Reviewer must give the applicant the opportunity to make representations and must take any such representation into account when making their decision.

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

Higher level disclosures, those that can include the most sensitive information, can only be provided to organisations registered with Disclosure Scotland. Such organisations can register with Disclosure Scotland because they are legally entitled to request higher level disclosures. There are offences contained in disclosure legislation to prevent against disclosures being requested or used where there is no legal entitlement to do so.

Disclosure Scotland's Code of Practice is published by Scottish Ministers and details the legal obligations that organisations registered with Disclosure Scotland must comply with. This includes provision of information when registering with Disclosure Scotland to ensure that the person receiving disclosure information is suitable to do so and requirements on handling disclosure information.

Disclosure Scotland can carry out assurance and audit checks in relation to organisations registered to receive disclosure information and regularly do outreach to support organisations in meeting their responsibilities around handling disclosure information.

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

Disclosure Scotland regularly exceeds the Service Level Agreement to complete 90% of applications within 14 days. During 2022-2023 we completed 98% of applications within target and in 2023-2024 have so far delivered 95% within target. Disclosure Scotland monitors service delivery performance daily, while also utilising application volume forecasts and resource planning, to ensure that our Service Level Agreement is maintained.

As an Executive Agency of the Scottish Government, Disclosure Scotland presents its Annual Report and Accounts to Parliament each year. This includes information on performance.

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

Three recent Acts of the Scottish Parliament - the Management of Offenders (Scotland Act 2019, the Age of Criminal Responsibility (Scotland) Act 2019 and the Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 - have changed the disclosure process in relation to the wellbeing and future life chances of children who have been involved in the children’s hearings system or criminal justice system.

Per Scottish Government policy, Children’s Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessments have informed policy development and involved children and young people in evidence-gathering and decision-making.

Children and young people were spoken to directly though engagement with them at the Young Offender Institution (YOI) Polmont, the Scottish Youth Parliament, Children's Parliament, Who Cares? Scotland, Youth Advantage Outreach, Up-2-Us, Sacro, Youth Just Us, Life Changes Trust and Kibble, Good Shepherd, St Mary’s Kenmure and Rossie Young People’s Trust secure accommodation. The methods used to engage and record views ranged from scenario storytelling to quizzes, timelines, discussion groups, voting cards, games and artwork. Their views were recorded and applied to impact assessment of the policies.

New processes for review applications under the Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 are due to be implemented in April 2025. Disclosure Scotland is engaging with Who Cares? Scotland, Children and Young People's Centre for Justice and Clan Childlaw about the effect on people who had justice-experience in childhood. Following engagement with children who had been brought into the PVG Scheme, the Disclosure Act raises the minimum age for accessing most disclosure types to 16 years old.

The Scottish Government remain fully committed to the Verity House Agreement. Since the signing of the Verity House Agreement in June last year good progress has been made, and there are a number of positive examples of collaborative working between central and local government.

The Scottish Government is committed to an open and regular dialogue with Local government and are willing to meet at any time when any matters of concern arise. The level of engagement between our two spheres of government has never been so high.

The Scottish Government and COSLA meet regularly through a number of different forums under the Verity House Agreement to discuss progress towards our three shared priorities.

Revenue Scotland publish monthly data for Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) which sets out the number and value of transactions for residential LBTT, the Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS) and non-residential leases and conveyances. These publications can be found on Revenue Scotland's website at the following link: Monthly LBTT Statistics | Revenue Scotland

Revenue Scotland also publish an Annual Summary of Trends in the Devolved Taxes which sets out detailed data and commentary for LBTT and Scottish Landfill Tax (SLfT). The latest publication covering 2022-23 was published in November 2023 and can be found at the following link: Annual Summary of Trends in the Devolved Taxes 2022/23 | Revenue Scotland

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

Disclosure Scotland work closely with organisations regarding supporting children and young people with information on the disclosure processes. This is to ensure that children and young people have the information they need to understand the disclosure process and to inform those supporting them on their journey. This work includes publication of information on supporting learners who have offended and what education practitioners should know as part of a suite of resources available on the Education Scotland website. We also collaborate with Who Cares? Scotland on disclosure matters and have produced some short videos providing information on key areas that have caused concern to care-experienced young people such as application completion and what the consideration for listing (barring) process is. This information is available on the. "disclosure scotland" - Who Cares? Scotland (whocaresscotland.org)

During the formal consideration for listing (barring) process, if Disclosure Scotland identify a potential vulnerability, we will engage with relevant professionals such as social workers, to ensure we are communicating with the individual in the most appropriate and supportive way.