The Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007: Section 35(2) and (3) The Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007 (Removal of Barred Individuals from Regulated Work) Regulations 2010

Question 4: Do you have any concerns that either of these options will have an impact on businesses?

Analysis

• 42% of respondents feel that maintaining the current provisions or creating new provisions will not have any impact on businesses.
• 46% of respondents felt that there could be an impact on businesses.
• Anonymous said changing regulations always results in costs for businesses. New provisions will result in more resources needed. New provisions could result in a mandatory scheme which would increase costs. Delays in recruitment. Burden and costs of rechecks. Organisations not having the infrastructure in place to implement new provisions.
• YouthLink Scotland believes that "The introduction of Option 2 will place additional burden and responsibility upon small voluntary organisations. In times of diminishing resources all efforts to reduce the impact of administrative changes should be made. As we set out in Question 1, we would prefer resource to be used to raise awareness of organisations of the existing duties on retrospective checks. We would be concerned if any proposed new regulations were to come in to place which created additional financial cost for PVG checking by the organisation in order for them to fulfil their duties."
• SPAEN States that "Our concerns are not around the impact on "businesses" but that of persons with disabilities; long-term conditions or impairments who have been assessed as eligible to receive a Direct Payment and may use this to employ support staff directly. Pre the 2007 Act, these persons were able to obtain an Enhanced Disclosure and make recruitment decisions based on all available criminal conviction and non-conviction information. Since the implementation of the 2007 Act, the provisions allowing persons seeking to employ someone in a supporting role in such a manner were removed and the amount of conviction and non-conviction information available to these persons significantly reduced. SPAEN would like a wider consultation and discussion on whether persons employing assistants in these limited and very specific circumstances should be permitted to access a greater level of detail to allow a more robust "safe recruitment process".