The Criminal Records Bureau contacted all member states in 2007 to establish whether there was an opportunity to enter into agreements to exchange data for employment vetting purposes where national laws allowed. To date there have been positive responses from some member states —the Republic of Ireland, France, Estonia and Poland. Australia has also indicated a willingness to share information.
A Home Office-chaired Steering Group has been established to oversee this project and representatives include the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Criminal Records Bureau.
We remain committed to improving access to overseas criminal convictions data. Even where another jurisdiction is willing to exchange such information, detailed work will still be needed with each overseas jurisdiction on a range of issues, including forming an understanding of offence descriptions which may differ from those used in UK jurisdictions and establishing exchange arrangements where criminal records data are not held centrally in the overseas jurisdiction, or are not held electronically.