Disclosure Scotland Quarterly Update

Countersignatories (CSGs) and accredited bodies

Interested party details

Organisations should keep their interested party details up to date regularly. Thank you to the hundreds of organisations who are already using their online account to manage their interested parties. If you have not used this service yet, please do so as soon as possible. This is an important step that you can take now to prepare for moving more PVG scheme members to the five-year membership.

You can manage this through the CSG portal. Our e-learning on how to manage PVG memberships may help you. Our Customer Engagement Team may also be in touch with you in the coming weeks to discuss any further support that you may need to help you use this service.

Managing your interested party information regularly helps reduce unnecessary administration for you, and means you only receive safeguarding updates for people that are still relevant to your organisation. It also means enquiries reach the right people quicker, reduces delays and supports the effective handling of safeguarding matters.

New: ‘How to be a Countersignatory’ on-demand webinar

Our ‘How to be a Countersignatory’ webinar is now available on YouTube. Learn about disclosure types, the PVG scheme, the Code of Practice and your responsibilities when handling disclosure information. Find more resources on our website. Share this with any CSG colleagues who would benefit from our training. You can still book onto events if you prefer interactive learning.

Regulated role enquiries

To help fulfil safeguarding responsibilities, organisations should respond promptly to enquiries from Disclosure Scotland about an individual's current role and employment status. Delays can affect case progression and the timely sharing of important safeguarding information.

Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme

Five-year membership

The PVG scheme moved to a five-year membership model on 1 April 2026. Existing members do not need to take any action at this time. Members who joined before 1 April 2026 will move to the new membership model either when they next apply to the PVG scheme or through a phased transition programme. We will contact members before they are moved to the five-year model and provide information about any action they need to take. Further information will be shared in updates and on our website.

Free social care checks

From 1 August 2026, eligible new workers in commissioned adult and children's social care services can apply for PVG scheme membership free of charge through a new fee waiver. Read more on our website.

Keep your email up to date

All PVG scheme members should ensure their email address is up to date with Disclosure Scotland so they can receive important information. Organisations can support this by encouraging their staff and volunteers to update their details where required. Read more on our website.

Improving our service - You said, we did

Throughout 2026, we closely monitored customer complaints to better understand the causes of dissatisfaction and identify opportunities to improve the customer experience. Our analysis showed that delays caused by the need to obtain additional information from external partners were a main source of customer frustration.

In response, we have introduced a number of improvements, including:

• improving customer awareness and understanding of this stage of the process.
• working more closely with external partners to identify and deliver continuous improvements across the customer journey.
• introducing operational changes to streamline processing and improve efficiency.

These actions have strengthened our processes, increased awareness across stakeholders and helped us to provide a better customer experience. We remain committed to identifying further opportunities to improve performance for cases requiring information from external partners and reduce the impact of delays on our customers.

Disclosure Scotland’s quarter two performance round-up

We completed 151,818 applications from 1 July to 30 September 2026, with an average processing time of 4.7 days and 99.9% of applications were completed within 14 days. From 1 July to 30 September 2026, 99.4% of applications were submitted online. Of the disclosures completed during quarter two that were eligible for sharing with an accredited body, 92.8% were shared within 14 days.

To read more about our performance or learn more about our data and to read explanatory notes, please visit the performance page on our website.

News highlights

More than 600 reviews completed in first year of simpler disclosure review process

The Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 simplified the convictions review process in response to stakeholder concerns that the previous system was complex, costly and difficult to navigate. Read our article and more about the process on our website.

‘Starts with Safety’ campaign

Over the past few months, we have been raising awareness of PVG scheme legal duties amongst specific sectors and stakeholders with our ‘Starts with Safety’ campaign. Recent activity includes our engagement with the youth football sector and with prelim season almost upon us, we are encouraging tutors to check their PVG scheme membership.

Two years on – referral powers for councils and Integration Joint Boards

Two years on from the introduction of local authority referral powers, discover why they remain an important part of safeguarding in our recent article. We are also reminding councils and Integration Joint Boards to review their safeguarding and referral processes. Find out more on our website.

New: Corporate Strategy - DS30

Our new Corporate Strategy, DS30, was published in August on our website. We also have a quick guide version if you prefer a lighter read but still want to stay in the know.