About us

An Executive Agency of the Scottish Government

We are Disclosure Scotland (DS), an executive agency of the Scottish Government. We operate as part of wider public services to support employment, safeguarding and public protection across Scotland.

As a crucial part of Scotland’s public protection system, we:

• manage the Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme
• decide on behalf of Scottish Ministers, who is unsuitable to carry out regulated roles with children and protected adults
• carry out criminal record checks
• Safeguarding is our number one focus. 

Our staff are civil servants. We operate within the Scottish Government’s framework for governance, finance and performance.

We are directly accountable to Scottish Ministers and form part of the Scottish Government Education and Justice portfolio.

As an executive agency, we bring together policy, service delivery and operational expertise in one organisation.

We work closely with our Ministers, other Scottish Government policy teams and stakeholders. This helps us to make sure that Scotland’s disclosure system remains effective, proportionate and aligned with legislative and societal needs.