The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) Screening Service
- Background and formation of the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
- When to apply for a CRB disclosure
- How to apply for a CRB disclosure
- Portability of CRB disclosures
- Confirmation of employment offers
- Where CRB clearance is not available or applicable, but screening is required
Background and formation of the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) was established under part 5 of the Police Act 1997 and was launched in March 2002. The CRB enables organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors to make safer recruitment decisions by identifying candidates who may be unsuitable for certain work, especially that which involves children or vulnerable adults, by offering criminal record checks for employment and related purposes.
In 2009 the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) was launched and is responsible for making 'barring decisions' where an individual is considered to be unfit to work with vulnerable groups and is placed on a disclosable register of those who are formally barred from such work.
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Latest News Late in 2012 the services provided by the CRB and ISA will be merged and a single, new non-departmental public body will be created: the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). The CRB will continue to provide the disclosure service, and the ISA will continue to make barring decisions and hold the register of barred individuals, but the two organisations will come under the joint banner of the DBS from December 2012. |
When to apply for a CRB disclosure
A CRB disclosure is indicated for posts where there is a requirement to work with young people under the age of 18 or with vulnerable adults (a vulnerable adult is a person aged over 18 whose ability to protect him or herself from neglect, abuse, or violence is significantly impaired on account of disability, illness or otherwise)
The CRB provides two different levels disclosure: standard, and enhanced, as follows:
- Standard disclosures identify spent and unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings held on the Police National Computer.
- Enhanced disclosures contain the same information as the Standard Disclosure but with the addition of any relevant and proportionate information held by the local police forces. For those regularly caring for, supervising, training, or being in sole charge of children or vulnerable adults the check will also contain information held by the ISA.
The level of pre-employment checking will be determined by the duties of the position to be held, although posts within the University usually require an enhanced disclosure. The University CRB and Vetting Office (tel.: (2)82152) located within the University Security Service (USS) will advise as to which kind of disclosure is needed in individual cases and this advice will be discussed with the designated individual in the department concerned.
How to apply for a CRB disclosure
The University Security Service is registered with the CRB to act on behalf of the University. In order to register, the University must comply with the CRB code of practice, and have a policy on the employment of ex-offenders. The latter requirement is fulfilled by pre-employment screening notes for candidates provided to applicants through the Core system. All disclosure applications must be sent via the CRB and Vetting Office.
To initiate CRB screening designated individuals in departments or colleges should request an application form from the University CRB and Vetting Office, which should then be completed and signed by the candidate, with authentication of the form completed by the designated person.
| A designated person is someone whom a department/college nominates to represent them on all CRB issues, and is the person with whom the CRB & Vetting office will normally liaise in the event of any issues arising from CRB applications. Upon nomination, designated persons are invited to attend the CRB & Vetting office in Security Services, to receive a personal briefing on the completion of all CRB & Vetting applications. |
Should the individual express any concern about a completed form being seen by departmental staff the individual may have a confidential discussion with the Head of Vetting (272945), or the Vetting Administrator (282152). Such concerns may arise where, for example, an applicant is transgendered and has concerns about revealing information about previous names to departmental staff, or for other reasons, and it is important to respect the individual's right to privacy.
The form is then returned to the University CRB Office with a purchase or service order from the department or college, which will allow the CRB office to invoice the college, or debit the department for payment of the CRB's administrative charge for this service. (The fee is currently £50 and will only increase in line with any Government increase for the service, or as directed by the University.)
It is anticipated that each application, regardless of the level of disclosure, will take a minimum of four weeks to process owing to the current service standards of the CRB. Departments should not make appointments prior to receiving CRB clearance. If this is unavoidable, it should be made clear to the appointee that his or her continuing employment is subject to a satisfactory disclosure being received. Where an appointment is made prior to clearance, departments will need to undertake a careful risk assessment of the situation before deciding whether access to sensitive information and, in the case of employees in clinical departments, to children and vulnerable adults, should be restricted or closely supervised until clearance is confirmed.
It is important that the confidentiality of those being screened prior to employment is strictly maintained at all times. Therefore only individuals already authorised within departments to offer employment and sign letters of appointment should initiate screening and handle information disclosed by the CRB. Members of the University Security Service staff have the same duty of confidentiality.
Applications received and CRB responses will be recorded in a confidential database. On receipt of the disclosure the University CRB Office will contact the designated person in the department and arrange to discuss the disclosure. Where disclosures indicates an anomaly, further advice should be sought from the University CRB Office and from Personnel Services before any decision to amend or withdraw an offer of employment is made.
Initiation and completion of CRB checks must be logged on CoreHR. Refer to REC03 Manage Online Applications 
(558kb)).
Portability of CRB disclosures
In some cases candidates will have an existing CRB disclosure, which they may offer in place of a new CRB check. It is important to note that a CRB disclosure is a 'snapshot' of a moment in time, and the information provided by the ISA and local police checks will relate to a specific post (for example if a disclosure has been requested with reference to a post involving work with children, only the list of those barred from working with children will be checked and information about those who are barred from working with vulnerable adults will be not be disclosed) and therefore departments will need to undertake a careful risk assessment of the situation before deciding whether to accept a previous CRB disclosure or to submit a new application.
The risk assessment should cover matters such as: the nature of the post and duties to be carried out; whether the level of clearance held matches that required for the new post; whether the information provided by the existing CRB disclosure impacts on the candidate's suitability for the post. In any event, departments should not accept CRB disclosures that are older than six months, other than in exceptional circumstances, or where a risk assessment has highlighted a very insignificant risk.
Where the previous CRB disclosure has been undertaken by the University it is possible, on application to University Security Services, to request confirmation of the authenticity of the document. However, in order to comply with CRB regulations, disclosures which have been requested by University Security Services are not retained for longer than six months.
For further information see the BIS guidance 'accepting a previously issued CRB check'.
In early 2013 the government intend to launch an online checking service which will improve the portability of CRB disclosures.
Confirmation of employment offers
Selected candidates must not be confirmed in post until the University CRB Office has confirmed that the candidate is acceptable and any offer of employment made in advance of receipt of a CRB disclosure report must be conditional on receipt of a satisfactory report. Departments should note that the CRB code of practice requires that any information disclosed which prevents an offer of employment being confirmed is discussed with the applicant concerned.