People arriving from Ukraine - risk and need: public protection guidance

Disclosure Scotland

Local authorities are responsible for determining a person's overall suitability to host. Disclosure checks are one part of this process and should be considered alongside other information relevant to suitability. 

An enhanced disclosure application form should be fully completed for each adult over the age of 16 years in the household and sent to Disclosure Scotland via a counter signatory within the local authority. This includes members of the household who are only residing temporarily (e.g., students over 16 years old returning from studies).

When Disclosure Scotland has completed its checks, it will issue an enhanced disclosure certificate to both the counter signatory within the local authority and the individual host or other adult within the host accommodation.

The local authority should assess any information disclosed on this certificate when considering the suitability of a host (or adult within the host household) to provide accommodation as part of the Individual Matching scheme or Scottish Super Sponsor scheme.

An enhanced disclosure includes:

• unspent convictions
• relevant spent convictions
• unspent cautions
• a statement about whether the displaced person is included in the children's or adult's lists, or is being considered for inclusion in those list(s)
• other relevant information held by the police
• details of prescribed court orders and sex offender notification requirements

Guidance is available to further support local authorities, detailing factors to consider when assessing information disclosed on an enhanced certificate and how this may relate to a host’s suitability to accommodate displaced Ukrainians in their home.

Should the decision be taken that the host and/or property are not suitable, the local authority will inform the host of this decision by letter, reflecting that checks undertaken have been in keeping with the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme Sponsor Guidance.

How to apply for enhanced disclosure for hosts

Information is available on how to apply for a Disclosure Scotland check for prospective hosts. Hosts should first complete the form and return to the local authority to complete and submit to Disclosure Scotland.

Timescales for enhanced disclosure checks

All checks will be processed within 2 to 4 days, with the majority of certificates issued to countersignatures and hosts during that period.  A small number of checks may take longer as:

• further information may be requested from other UK or EU police forces (for EU where agreement to share criminal record information cross border exists)
• the certificate may contain conviction or other relevant information that the applicant can legally appeal to have removed
• further information is required from the applicant to progress the records matching process (commonly confirmation of middle names or 5-year address history)

These exceptions will delay the resulting of the disclosure to local authorities.

Where a disclosure is delayed for one or more of these reasons, the local authority should consider other safeguarding information to assess suitability or risk, particularly where the disclosure check has been submitted retrospectively. Where the check is done prior to matching, it is recommended any host arrangements are not progressed until this information is released.

A local authority will be aware where checks for an individual host have not been satisfactorily completed. Where this is the case, and guests have already begun living in the hosted arrangement, practitioners should ensure that individuals:

• wish to proceed
• have the capacity to make such a decision
• child or adult support and protection procedures are not relevant

The guest(s) should be provided with information relating to any risks identified to help them in their decision. As part of this conversation, the local authority may wish to offer alternative accommodation. This would be at the local authority’s discretion.

If child or adult protection risks have been identified, the local authority may prevent or delay a move until child protection and/or adult protection procedures have been followed, including risk assessment.

Further information about how disclosure checks will be sought and processed by local authorities is contained in local authority guidance.