Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme data for Sea Cadets Corps: FOI release

Information requested

Would you please provide the following with respect to Disclosure Scotland/PVG scheme members who are/were adult volunteers with the Sea Cadets Corps within Scotland:

Since 17th June 2010 to the present day, how many scheme members have been registered as members for regulated work/volunteering with the Sea Cadet Corps?

Since 17th June 2010 to the present day, how many scheme members with the Sea Cadets Corps have been referred to Disclosure Scotland for harmful behaviour towards children? If available, please also provide a breakdown of how many of these referrals have been for physical assault, sexual behaviour, and providing/exposing children to alcohol or drugs. Of these referrals, how many were made by the Sea Cadets Corps as an organisation, and how many by other statutory bodies, ie police, courts?

Since 17th June 2010 to the present day, has the Sea Cadets Corps failed to refer any members for harmful behaviour as per the guidance, and if so, has Disclosure Scotland taken further action against the organisation/reported such failure to the police?

Since 17th June 2010 to the present day, how many scheme members with the Sea Cadets Corps have been placed on the barred list?

If possible, could the above figures be broken down by local authority area, or sheriffdom, or legacy police force areas/local policing divisions if such data is held.

Response

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Disclosure Scotland does not have some of the information you have requested. I have answered each of your questions below and, where applicable, explained why we do not hold the data.

1. Since 17th June 2010 to the present day, how many scheme members have been registered as members for regulated work/volunteering with the Sea Cadet Corps?

The Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007 came into force on 28 February 2011, and the data I have provided applies from this date. In total, 2033 scheme members have made applications which were countersigned by the Sea Cadets Corps. The disclosure regime enables employers, as part of a wider recruitment process, to make informed decisions when assessing a person’s suitability for certain roles, and an employer may decide not to recruit an individual because of their disclosure results. Therefore, it is not possible for Disclosure Scotland to confirm whether the Sea Cadets Corps recruited those applicants or whether they are currently carrying out regulated roles on their behalf.

Disclosure Scotland keeps lists of people who are unsuitable to carry out regulated roles with children and protected adults. When a person who is applying to join the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme has a previous conviction(s), Disclosure Scotland will assess whether the conviction(s) indicates that they may be unsuitable to carry out regulated roles with children and/or protected adults. If so, Disclosure Scotland will consider whether the person should be included in the children’s list and/or the adults’ list and barred from doing carrying out regulated roles with these groups.

After a person has joined the PVG scheme, they are subject to continuous monitoring. This means that if they are convicted of a new offence, or the police provide Disclosure Scotland with information that is relevant to their membership of the scheme, Disclosure Scotland will place the scheme member under consideration for listing if the new information is such that Disclosure Scotland considers that it may be appropriate to list the person in either, or both, lists. Disclosure Scotland will notify all organisations for whom it knows the person is carrying out regulated roles, and any professional regulator if relevant, that it is considering whether the person should be barred.

It is a criminal offence for a barred person to carry out, to seek to carry out, or agree to carry out, any regulated roles from which they are barred. And it is an offence for an organisation to offer a regulated role to a person barred from such roles. From 1 April 2025, membership of the PVG scheme became mandatory for people carrying out regulated roles. Employers (paid and unpaid) must ensure someone is a scheme member otherwise they may be committing a criminal offence.

2. Since 17th June 2010 to the present day, how many scheme members with the Sea Cadets Corps have been referred to Disclosure Scotland for harmful behaviour towards children?

1. If available, please also provide a breakdown of how many of these referrals have been for physical assault, sexual behaviour, and providing/exposing children to alcohol or drugs.

2. Of these referrals, how many were made by the Sea Cadets Corps as an organisation, and how many by other statutory bodies, ie police, courts?

Organisations have a legal duty to report harmful behaviour to Disclosure Scotland if their employees are doing a regulated role, even if it takes place outside of work, or if the organisation only finds out about it after the person has left (sections 2 and 3 of the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007).

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA applies to the information you have requested relating to referrals. This is because we consider the information to be third party personal data. We believe that providing data in response to a request about referrals involving a potentially small group of people could indirectly lead to the identification of specific individuals. This would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in  applying the exemption.

3. Since 17th June 2010 to the present day, has the Sea Cadets Corps failed to refer any members for harmful behaviour as per the guidance, and if so, has Disclosure Scotland taken further action against the organisation/reported such failure to the police?

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA applies to the information you have requested relating to referrals made. Disclosure Scotland cannot confirm whether a specific organisation has made referrals as we consider the information to be third party personal data due to its small scope potentially leading to identification of specific individuals. This would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

4. Since 17th June 2010 to the present day, how many scheme members with the Sea Cadets Corps have been placed on the barred list?

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA applies to the information you have requested relating to barring. This is because we consider the information to be third party personal data. We believe that providing barring information in relation to a potentially small amount of people tied to a specific organisation could lead to the identification of specific individuals. This would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

5. If possible, could the above figures be broken down by local authority area, or sheriffdom, or legacy police force areas/local policing divisions if such data is held.

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA applies to the information you have requested relating to referrals, as to provide a statistical breakdown of referals by categories you have requested could potentially lead to identification of specific individuals. This would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. Thisexemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

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