CHAPTER 6: CONNECTING WITH THE REST OF THE UK -PROPOSED ACTIONS
No specific questions were asked in this area of the consultation and respondents who commented broadly supported the approach outlined.
The Scottish Government will continue to work with colleagues and agencies responsible for developing the system for the other parts of the UK through the SVG Act 2006 and the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups (Northern Ireland) Order 2007.
Both schemes will remain separate and distinct in the detail of their operation, which will mean that people working in both jurisdictions need to be a member of both schemes and those moving between jurisdictions will need to become members of the scheme in the jurisdiction they are moving to.
However, the policy aim of all administrations involved is to create schemes that interact smoothly and effectively with one another, making them easy to use for employees and employers, while preventing any loopholes that could be exploited by those who would seek to harm vulnerable groups.
Both Acts and the Northern Ireland Order already provide for individuals who are listed in one administration to be barred from regulated work in all administrations.
In order to make this approach work, agreement has been reached on a protocol that will be used to decide which jurisdiction takes barring decisions in any given case. The guiding principle is that the jurisdiction with the more immediate exposure to any potential risk from the individual should apply its rules to consideration for listing. This will ensure that individuals are never considered for listing by both administrations on the basis of the same information. The protocol is summarised below.
Cross border listing decision protocol
Scheme membership | Who makes the decision whether to list |
Member of the Scottish scheme only | Disclosure Scotland on behalf of Scottish Ministers will always make the decision. |
Member of the SVG scheme only | Independent Safeguarding Authority will always make the decision. |
Members of both schemes | Disclosure Scotland on behalf of Scottish Ministers will always make the decision if the referral, incident or conviction originates in Scotland. The Independent Safeguarding Authority will always make the decision if the referral, incident or conviction originates elsewhere in the UK. |
Members of neither scheme (this is likely to be particularly relevant during the period of phasing in the scheme, where an individual is in regulated work, but hasn't yet joined the scheme and in relation to automatic listing offences where doing regulated work is not a pre-requisite to listing) | Disclosure Scotland on behalf of Scottish Ministers will always make the decision if the referral, incident or conviction originates in Scotland. The Independent Safeguarding Authority will always make the decision if the referral, incident or conviction originates elsewhere in the UK. |
Detailed work is now underway to develop the secondary legislation, technical interfaces, guidance and detailed operating procedures that will be required to make for effective interaction between the two schemes. This will continue as both programmes prepare for full implementation