CRB Disclosure Levels

Standard Check

Also referred to as a Standard Disclosure. Standard checks can be applied for by people entering certain professions, such as members of the legal and accountancy professions and applying for specified licences. A Standard check contains details of all convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings held on the Police National Computer (PNC). A Standard check cannot reveal if a person is ISA-registered or barred from working with children or vulnerable adults.

Enhanced Check

This is the highest level of check available to anyone involved in regulated activity for a regulated activity provider working with children or vulnerable adults. It is also available in certain licensing purposes and judicial appointments.

Enhanced checks contain the same information as the Standard check but also inlcudes a check of the new barred lists and any relevant and proportionate information held by the local police forces.

The CRB recognises that the Standard and Enhanced certificate information can be extremely sensitive and personal, therefore it has published a Code of Practice and employers' guidance for recipients of certificates to ensure they are handled fairly and used properly.

VBS - Vetting and Barring Scheme

The new Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) launches on 12th October 2009 with individuals being able to become ISA - Registered from 26th July 2010.

CRD will bring our customers the ability to submit ISA Registration applications seamlessly from within their control panel of CRD Online system.

What is the Vetting and Barring Scheme?

The VBS is a partnership of the CRB, ISA and Access NI
The CRB are responsible for the application and monitoring elements of the scheme
The ISA are responsible for the decision making and maintenance of two barred lists for England and Wales and Northern Ireland covering the children's and vulnerable adults' sectors
The new Barred Lists will replace the existing Protection of Children Act (PoCA) List, List 99 and the Protection of Vulnerable Adults (PoVA) List in England and Wales, and the Disqualification from Working with Children (DWC) List, the Unsuitable Persons List (UP List) and the Disqualification from Working with Vulnerable Adults (DWVA) List In Northern Ireland as well as the current system of Disqualification Orders, which is operated by the Criminal Justice System.
The VBS is designed to ensure that anyone who presents a known risk to vulnerable groups is prevented from working with them and is an additional recruitment tool. It is not a guarantee that an individual is suitable for the position

How will the new vetting service improve on the current schemes?

Once the scheme is fully implemented, it will mean that anyone who wants to work or volunteer with children or vulnerable adults in 'Regulated Activity' will be required to be registered with the ISA.
A barred person will be committing an offence should they seek employment or volunteering opportunity in regulated activity.
It will be an offence for any person to commence Regulated Activity without first being ISA-registered.
It will be an offence for an employer to hire a person in regulated activity without first confirming their ISA registration.
Employers, personnel suppliers and other statutory, business and public organisations have a legal duty to refer appropriate information to the ISA.
Those with a legitimate interest and have registered this interest will be informed if an employee becomes de-registered from the scheme.
Parents will now be able to check that the individuals they employ in a private capacity as tutors, nannies, carers or in other regulated activity are registered with the ISA, using the same online check as an employer. (However, there is no duty on parents to do this; they will not face legal penalties for failing to check.) NB: an individual who is barred is still not permitted to undertake this kind of regulated activity.

Who runs the Vetting and Barring Scheme?

The Vetting and Barring Scheme, is being delivered in partnership between the Independent Safeguarding Authority, the Criminal Records Bureau and Access Nothern Ireland. The ISA makes the barring decisions and the CRB administers the scheme
What are the key dates for the Vetting and Barring Scheme?
On the 12th October 2009 the three current barring lists (POCA, POVA and List 99) will be replaced by two new barred lists and from the 26th July 2010 applicants can start to apply for ISA registration. The Online ISA-registration service will be introduced at the same time

How will the new Vetting and Barring Scheme work?

Making an application to register

Those people who are applying to work or volunteer with children or vulnerable adults will have to apply to be ISA-registered via the CRB on the new application form. For individuals undertaking paid employment, the registration will incur a one-off fee of £64. [£58 in Northern Ireland] Volunteers will have to apply in the same way as an employee however, will not be charged for registering. (Arrangements for those already working or volunteering with these groups will be published nearer the VBS launch.) Individuals may still be required by their employers to obtain a CRB check to check suitability to for their actual job and duties.
The initial vetting process

Any relevant information from the police or referrals from other sources, such as previous employers or professional bodies, will be passed to the ISA for consideration. The ISA will use all relevant information to decide whether the applicant should be placed on a Barred List. If there is no information the CRB will inform the applicant that they are ISA-registered.

Individuals placed on the ISA Barred Lists will have the right to make representations against the decision and also to the Care Standards Tribunal (new window), except where they have committed a serious offence.
Continuous monitoring

All ISA-registered individuals are subject to continuous monitoring. This means that the ISA decision not to bar them could be reviewed in the light of new police or referral information. Where this happens the ISA will notify the employer or service provider concerned, wherever they have registered an interest.

ISA Scheme Halted

As you may now be aware, the Government has announced their intention to remodel the Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) back to proportionate, common sense levels. As a result, the ISA registration phase of the scheme has now been stopped and therefore will not launch on 26th July 2010.

The CRB have now announced the following arrangements and changes to come into force as of 20th of July 2010:

All the disclosure applications for Standard or Enhanced CRB Checks will be required to be submitted on the new style (purple) application form. The applicants are to leave the ISA registration sections blank.
Any applications received by CRD on the old style form will be rejected.
Online service users will remain unaffected.

Although the full details and scope of this remodel are still to be finalised:

it is business as usual for the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB).
the elements of the VBS put in place back in October 2009 continue.
existing requirements concerning CRB will remain in place, and those entitled to such checks can continue to apply for them.

As a result of ISA registration being stopped, the CRB has had to consider the impact on its application process. You will be aware that the CRB has recently provided Registered Bodies with an initial stock of new (purple) application forms in readiness for the planned launch of the ISA registration phase in July, and although this phase of the VBS has now been halted, the CRB will still launch the new application form as originally planned.

The CRB hopes that by introducing the new form as planned, it will reduce the inconvenience to you during this period. In order to process your applications, the CRB will extract and ignore those parts of the new application form which capture ISA registration requirements, and use only those data fields which are required to process a CRB check.

For more information, please visit www.crb.gov.uk.