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My view is that it should only be a last resort, and that other measures should be taken to support that child or find out what is happening in that child’s life that is causing the reason that they would be excluded. As I said, I believe that it should be as a last resort.

As I said, we are working on progress towards supporting children and young people in their school day. We are experiencing a number of issues in our schools, as the member will be aware, and the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills has just launched the relationships and behaviour action plan. We are taking a number of actions to try to reduce exclusions. Yes, if the Promise says that we are to end exclusions, that will have to be the case if we are to deliver on the Promise by 2030—

That is something else that we consulted on, and we are still analysing the responses. It was clear that people wanted a broad definition of care experience that encapsulated the vast range of different experiences that people with experience of care may have had. It will be fundamental, in that some aspects of access to services and so on are reliant on care experience. I will bring in Gavin Henderson to say a little more about the work that has been done since the consultation closed.

I am saying that I would encourage headteachers to look at every other solution, whether that be things such as part timetables or removing children from the school but, equally, still ensuring that they are able to have an education and transition back into school. I do not believe that exclusions—

In order to deliver on the Promise, it will need to end.

We need to understand that, in exceptional circumstances, a part-time timetable or a flexible approach might be needed to appropriately support a child or a young person who might have been out of school for days or months and to enhance their transition back into school.

However, I and the Scottish Government have been very clear that part-time timetables for a child or a young person who is returning from an exclusion should be used only in the short term, not for long periods, because that approach is an effort to transition children and young people back into school. That approach should be taken only in the short term, for a defined period, and aims and conditions should be recorded in a plan that will allow the child to transition back into the school day.

Okay.

I am here to answer questions on the Promise, as I said. The session has gone over time by nearly an hour—

I do not have anything further to say, Mr Ross.

Thank you for inviting me to give evidence to the committee on the four draft Scottish statutory instruments. I hope that the following information will be of help to committee members.

The disclosure system in Scotland comprises two broadly aligned parts—self-disclosure and state disclosure. Self-disclosure is when an individual provides information about their own criminal history, perhaps to an employer or to a regulatory body, and what they must disclose in different circumstances is set out in law. The purpose of state disclosure is to provide a means to verify those disclosures. That balances two objectives. The first objective is to ensure that relevant criminal history is disclosed, and the second is to ensure that irrelevant matters are not disclosed so that an individual who is no longer offending can move on in life.

The draft Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exclusions and Exceptions) (Scotland) Amendment (No 2) Order 2025 will make modifications to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exclusions and Exceptions) (Scotland) Order 2013, which I will now refer to as “the 2013 order”. Those modifications will maintain full alignment between the state disclosure and self-disclosure rules. The amendments that will be made to the 2013 order are necessary to prevent an individual from being at risk of overdisclosing spent convictions through self-disclosure, and will ensure that state disclosure and self-disclosure work as intended, following the changes that were made to the disclosure system by the 2020 act.

The draft Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 (List A and B Offences) Amendment Regulations 2025 will amend schedules 1 and 2 of the Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 by modifying the list A and list B offence lists. List A offences include the most serious offences, such as serious violence, sexual offending and terrorist offences. List B offences contain less serious offences that still warrant disclosure. The SSI will amend those lists by adding new offences that were not in existence when the Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 received royal assent, by moving offences from list B—which consists of offences that are considered to be less serious—to list A, which includes the most serious offences, such as serious violence, sexual offending and terrorist offences, and adding comparable offences that are not currently in each list following a systematic review.

List A and list B offence lists were first introduced to Scotland’s disclosure regime in September 2015, in response to a 2014 United Kingdom Supreme Court ruling that was made in respect of England and Wales. Scottish ministers pre-emptively reformed the disclosure regime by ending the practice of indefinite blanket disclosure of information about spent convictions through state disclosure or self-disclosure. If an offence is not included in either list, a conviction for that offence cannot be disclosed on any level of disclosure once it is spent. However, list A offences—which are serious offences—require disclosure once they are spent. List B offences are less serious, but still warrant disclosure once they are spent. The offence lists therefore serve an important purpose in fulfilling the task of protecting vulnerable groups and safeguarding sensitive assets or information.

The draft Regulated Roles with Children and Adults (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2025 will amend schedules 2 and 3 of the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007 in relation to regulated roles with children and regulated roles with adults, following extensive stakeholder engagement, which Disclosure Scotland conducted, regarding the operation of the schedules.

In practice, the schedules determine which roles require protection of vulnerable groups scheme membership. The regulations are necessary to ensure that schedules 2 and 3 are complete, correctly scoped, clear and concise in setting out which roles are regulated. One of the safeguarding reforms that was made by the Disclosure Act 1998 was the introduction of mandatory PVG scheme membership for anyone undertaking a regulated role. The mandatory PVG scheme will provide assurance that anyone undertaking a regulated role with children or adults is not unsuitable to do so.

The draft Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 (Incidental, Supplementary and Consequential Provision) Regulations 2025 is necessary to make various incidental, supplementary and consequential modifications to primary and secondary legislation. That will ensure that the changes that were made by the 2020 act are reflected in the disclosure regime in order to ensure that it operates effectively and efficiently.

I am happy to take questions on the draft regulations and order.