Scottish Government has ‘failed’ Disclosure Scotland waiting times, Labour says

The Scottish Government has “failed” to provide Disclosure Scotland with the resources it needs to complete Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) checks on time, Scottish Labour has warned.

The party said on Sunday that “urgent action” is needed to cut waiting times for PVG checks, after revealing data that found 11,875 applications took 42 days or more to complete between April 1 and December 31 last year.

Some 20,441 applications took between 28-41 days, 45,355 waited between 15 and 27 days, and 257,061 took between 0-14 days to complete.

The official target timeframe is 14 days or fewer.

The longest wait was 301 days, and the longest suspension time was 146 days.

All those who work with children or vulnerable people are required to have a PVG check conducted before they start employment.

Scottish Labour education spokeswoman Katherine Sangster said: “These checks are vital in keeping children and protected adults safe from harm.

“However, these figures show that thousands of checks are now taking much longer than the 14-day target for completion.

“This not only makes it more difficult for those working in roles such as teachers, nursery practitioners, or in our health service, to begin work, it also presents challenges for those organisations already struggling with staffing shortages.

“A well-functioning disclosure system is a matter of public safety, but unfortunately, the SNP government has failed to provide Disclosure Scotland with the resources it needs to carry out robust and speedy checks.

“Ministers must urgently act to ensure the organisation has the support it needs to cut the backlog and bring down the wait times for these important checks to be completed.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The Scottish Government regularly engages with Disclosure Scotland on the processing of applications to ensure it meets its targets for processing applications timeously. In some cases, additional steps need to be taken to reach the degree of certainty required for the PVG scheme, which is why some disclosures must take longer than 14 days.

“Failure to take these additional steps could undermine the protection of vulnerable groups in Scotland.”