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Criminal Records Bureau: Disclosure of Information

Volume 457: debated on Wednesday 7 March 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department for what reasons the results of Criminal Records Bureau searches on individuals are not transferable between organisations with the individual’s consent. (124291)

[holding answer 1 March 2007]: Disclosures are primarily designed to be used by an employer at the point of recruitment for a particular position. Ultimately it is for each employer and not the CRB to decide whether a fresh disclosure should be applied for, bearing in mind their legal and other responsibilities and subject to any statutory requirements. There are a number of reasons why an employer may not wish to accept a disclosure that has been processed for a previous employment position, including:

The disclosure may not be at the right level (there are two different levels of CRB check; standard and enhanced);

The older a disclosure is the less reliable the information is, because the information it contains may not be up to date;

Information revealed through a CRB check reflects the information that was available at the time of its issue—a person may have committed a crime in the intervening period;

An organisation or employer may be required by law to carry out a fresh check against the Protection of Children Act list (PoCA) and/or the Protection of Vulnerable Adults Act list (POVA), thereby limiting the use of portability.