Chief Executive foreword

On 1 April 2025, we successfully implemented the Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 and launched a comprehensive digital service supporting every disclosure product we provide.

This marked the completion of a major programme of reform that began a decade earlier. The lessons from the first years of the PVG scheme were clear. Our services had become too complex. We needed to do more to support people whose past convictions no longer reflected who they are today, while strengthening our ability to identify and bar those who present a risk to children, protected adults or both.

Over the following 10 years, we worked with Ministers and stakeholders to review the PVG scheme, develop and deliver new legislation, build the operational capability needed to implement it and create the digital services that bring it to life. For the first time in our history, every disclosure service is available online from application to result.

I am proud of what Disclosure Scotland has achieved. We have maintained consistently strong performance while delivering one of the most significant transformations in the organisation's history. Safeguarding now sits at the heart of everything we do.

Every day, we continuously monitor the records of around 1.8 million PVG scheme members. Where new information raises concerns about an individual's suitability to work with children or protected adults, our National Barring Service acts quickly. Within days, employers and regulators receive notification that an individual is under consideration for barring, enabling them to take any necessary protective action. This represents a significant national investment in safeguarding and public protection.

Alongside legislative reform, we have transformed our organisation. Since 2020, we have replaced our entire technology estate, introduced modern digital tools for colleagues and customers, and expanded automation across our services. These changes have improved productivity, reduced costs and generated millions of pounds in recurring efficiencies. At a time of sustained pressure on public finances, this has helped ensure that more resources remain available for frontline public services.

This strategy sets out the next stage of our journey.

Our work makes an important contribution to the Scottish Government's wider ambitions for Scotland. By helping people move on from past convictions where disclosure is no longer necessary, we support employment and economic participation. By continuing to modernise our services, we help employers recruit more efficiently and improve the experience of citizens who rely on our services. By sharing expertise, capability and digital assets across the public sector, we contribute to wider public service reform. Through all of this, we remain focused on our core purpose: protecting the public while enabling opportunity.

Over the next five years, we will focus on three priorities.

• First, we will ensure that membership of the PVG scheme reflects its intended purpose. The scheme has grown to almost two million members, and not all remain in roles that require membership. We will take forward a range of initiatives to reduce unnecessary membership and create a scheme that is more sustainable, proportionate and affordable.
• Second, we will continue to improve our services. We will increase automation where it improves quality and efficiency, reduce processing times and strengthen our safeguarding effectiveness, including speeding up barring decisions where appropriate.
• Third, we will play an active role in public service reform. The coming years will bring significant change across Scotland's public sector. Drawing on our experience of delivering large-scale transformation and major programmes successfully, Disclosure Scotland stands ready to contribute.

This strategy provides the blueprint for that work. It sets out how we will continue to protect the public, support opportunity and deliver value for the people of Scotland.

Gerard Hart
Chief Executive,
Disclosure Scotland