Information held by PVG Scotland: FOI release

Information requested

You asked for the following information:

• I require data with regards males and female members as a whole
• I require data on those with and without neuro diverse conditions as well as autism more specifically. I require this to also be split into gender.
• I require data on those who are barred both by gender of males and females.
• I require those on the barring list who have or do not have neuro diverse conditions and those who do and do not have autism.
• I require the information of those who have been accused of molestation.
• I require information on the gender of male and female of those as who have been accused.
• I also require data on accusations made against those with and without neuro diverse conditions and information on those with and without autism. This information would need to be in total, as well as those with and without neuro diverse conditions and those with and without autism.
• I also require data on the outcomes of accusations made against males and females.
• I require the data on the outcomes in cases or individuals with and without neuro diverse conditions and those with or without autism.
• I require data on the outcomes of accusations made against those with and without neuro diverse condition and those with or without autism, by gender of males and females.
• I require this information for the time series of the last 12 years, the last five years as well as the last three years. I require this data in monthly form as well as annual form.
• I finally require the full name of the person who is ultimately responsible for PVG Scotland

We requested clarification from you 9 December 2022 where we sought to define "molestation" and "accusation" and offered definitions. You accepted our proposed definitions, namely that "molestation" would be "any sexual offence against a child", and "accusation" would be any such offence notified to us by the police or other sources.

In our 9 December correspondence, we also advised that we did not hold data on neurodiversity, and provided notice under Section 17. You asked us to explain why we did not hold this data. I hope the following explanation is helpful.

We do not routinely collect information about neurodiversity when people apply for a disclosure check because we do not need that information in order to process their application. When considering an individual DS may receive health information (which can include information about neuro diverse conditions) along with other information about an individual’s circumstances as part of this process, and any such information will be taken into account in deciding whether the individual is unsuitable; this is due to the data minimisation principle.

More generally, we carry out Equality Impact Assessments to assess the equality and rights implications of any new policies and systems we introduce. In doing so we use a range of information including equality data gathered at national level, user feedback and feedback from advocacy groups.

Response

I have grouped your questions according to the data you requested, and provided responses to each in turn:

I require Data on those who are barred both by gender of males and females.

The requested data is within the attached excel document.

I require the information of those who have been accused of molestation (any sexual offence against a child), broken down by male and female

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. Even when using our agreed definition of ‘molestation’ and ‘accusation’ in an attempt to narrow the data set, we produced a report containing several hundred items which we would need to investigate individually to remove "false positives" so that we could provide accurate data in response to your request. We have calculated that expending this resource would exceed the upper cost limit. Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12. We have carefully considered this part of your request, and have determined that it cannot be brought below the upper cost limit as it will always require investigation of hundreds of items individually.

I require the information of those who have been convicted (outcome) of molestation (any sexual offence against a child), broken down by male and female

As above, while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. Using our agreed definition of ‘molestation’, we produced a report containing 869 items. As above, we would need to interrogate each item of data in order to remove "false positives" so that we could provide accurate data in response to your request. We have calculated that expending this resource would exceed the upper cost limit. Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12. Having carefully considered this part of your request, we have determined that it cannot be brought below the upper cost limit, as there will always be a requirement to investigate hundreds of items individually.

I finally require the full name of the person who is ultimately responsible for PVG Scotland.

This information is available from Disclosure Scotland’s framework at the below link:

Disclosure Scotland Framework - mygov.scot

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202200332499 - Information released

File type

Excel document

File size

14.6 kB