Disclosure Scotland Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) and Other Relevant Information (ORI) information: FOI release

Information requested

A. ORI usage & outcomes (10-year view, where held)

1. In the last 10 years, how many individuals had Other Relevant Information (ORI) included on a PVG/Disclosure where there was:

• No charge,
• A charge but no conviction,
• An acquittal.

2. How many individuals remain on a PVG barred list despite having no criminal conviction?

3. Over the last 10 years, how many ORI challenges/appeals were lodged, and how many succeeded (resulting in amendment/removal)?

4. In the last 10 years, how many individuals had ORI removed from their PVG following a successful challenge/review?

5. Average timescales (in days) to conclude ORI reviews/appeals in each of the past five financial years.

B. Policies, criteria, and safeguards (current or historic)

1. Copies of any policies/guidance/MOUs between Disclosure Scotland and Police Scotland regarding the referral and assessment of ORI, including where a case resulted in No Further Action (NFA) or acquittal.

2. Any internal criteria/decision guidance used to determine the reliability or evidential weight of untested/unproven information before it is included as ORI.

3. The policy/procedure for reviewing, correcting, or removing ORI where information is later shown to be inaccurate, outdated, or unsubstantiated.

4. A list of external data sources/partner agencies (e.g., Police Scotland, Social Work, COPFS) from which Disclosure Scotland receives information used for ORI, and any legal/policy documentation authorising these data flows.

5. Any quality-assurance or oversight process ensuring ORI referrals are fair, accurate, and proportionate (e.g., internal review panels, sign-off thresholds).

C. Reform and impact assessments

1. Any policy reviews, briefing papers, or impact assessments undertaken in response to the Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill and the abolition of the “not proven” verdict, particularly on how acquittal information will be handled within PVG disclosures going forward.

2. Any Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA), Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA), or Human Rights assessment that references ORI or the disclosure of untested allegations within PVG.

Response

A. ORI usage & outcomes (10-year view, where held)

1. In the last 10 years, how many individuals had Other Relevant Information (ORI) included on a PVG/Disclosure where there was:

• No charge,
• A charge but no conviction,
• An acquittal.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, Disclosure Scotland does not hold some of the information you have requested. This is because Disclosure Scotland does not categorise ORI in the way you’ve described. We do not record whether ORI is associated with “no charges”, “charges but no convictions”, or “acquittals”.

However, in order to assist you, I have included a table showing data from the last 5 years, compiled from our current system that was implemented in 2019. This sets out the total number of times ORI was disclosed each year, and indicates when disclosure occurred without any convictions being present.

Year	ORI	ORI with no conviction
2020	387	201
2021	524	298
2022	535	306
2023	676	360
2024	613	336
2025	599	349

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that Disclosure Scotland does not have the specific information you have requested.

2. How many individuals remain on a PVG barred list despite having no criminal conviction?

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, Disclosure Scotland does not hold some of the information you have requested.

As of November 2025, there are 13,687 individuals on the barred list. Of these, 1,524 do not have a police record associated with them on our systems. Please note that this does not mean the individuals have no convictions, it reflects the information provided to us by the police as part of our application and on-going monitoring processes.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that Disclosure Scotland does not have the specific information you have requested.

3. Over the last 10 years, how many ORI challenges/appeals were lodged, and how many succeeded (resulting in amendment/removal)?

Over the last 10 years, Disclosure Scotland has received 848 dispute notifications relating to ORI. Of those, 494 resulted in the police removing or modifying ORI on an individual’s PVG account.

4. In the last 10 years, how many individuals had ORI removed from their PVG following a successful challenge/review?

Disclosure Scotland has not recorded whether upheld disputes involving ORI resulted in its removal or amendment.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that Disclosure Scotland does not have the information you have requested.

5. Average timescales (in days) to conclude ORI reviews/appeals in each of the past five financial years.

The table below details the requested information for the last five financial years.

Financial Year	Timescale (days)
2020/21	14.92
2021/22	9.58
2022/23	13.75
2023/24	18.33
2024/25	41.58

B. Policies, criteria, and safeguards (current or historic)

In part B of your request, you asked some questions about the process of handling and disclosing Other relevant information (ORI).

Other Relevant Information (ORI) from the police is provided in relation to relevant Scottish police information under section 14 of the Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 (“the Disclosure Act”), relevant UK police information under section 14A of the Disclosure Act and The Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 (Consequential Provisions and Modifications) Order 2025 and relevant overseas police information under section 15 of the Disclosure Act. ORI is subject to a two-part test for disclosure of such information (that is whether the chief constable/officer reasonably believes the information is relevant to the purpose of the disclosure and whether in the chief constable/officer’s opinion it ought to be included in the disclosure).

Disclosure Scotland has no involvement in deciding what information on an individual is relevant to the purpose of the disclosure and ought to be included. This is the responsibility of the chief constable or chief officer of the police force. As such, for questions 7, 8, 9 and 10, Disclosure Scotland does not hold the information you’ve asked for, and you should approach Police Scotland if you require it.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that Disclosure Scotland does not have the information you have requested for questions 7, 8, 9 and 10.

In relation to question 6, there is statutory guidance available on the Scottish Government website.

This guidance, provided by Scottish Ministers, is for the Chief Constable to have regard to when exercising any function under the PVG Act or Disclosure Act. As explained above, ORI is disclosed solely by the Chief Constable and is subject to review by the independent reviewer, not by Disclosure Scotland/Scottish Ministers. I have provided a link to the guidance below. Page 12 addresses not guilty and not proven verdicts.

Guidance for the Chief Constable of Police Scotland - Disclosure Scotland

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

C. Reform and impact assessments

In answer to questions 11 and 12, an Equality Impact Assessment and Privacy Impact Assessments were carried out that included consideration of disclosure of ORI about behaviour that occurred while an individual was under the age of 12. These are available on the Scottish Government website and I have provided links to each of them below:

Supporting documents - Age of Criminal Responsibility (Scotland) Bill: privacy impact assessment - gov.scot

Supporting documents - Age of Criminal Responsibility (Scotland) Bill: equality impact assessment - gov.scot

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

About FOI

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