The government has pledged to make changes to the beleagured Criminal Records Bureau, but has still failed to set a date for the checking of home care workers, writes Katie Leason.

In response to recommendations made by an independent review team charged with examining the CRB, the government has announced that it will introduce a system for electronic applications and consider fingerprinting applicants.

Last November, the deadline for existing care home staff to be checked has been extended from 31 March this year to 31 October next year, and staff from domiciliary care and nursing agencies had their time limit for checks extended indefinitely.

At a meeting to describe the proposed new measures for the CRB, Lord Falconer, the home office minister with responsibility for the organisation, told Community Care that there was still no definite date in mind for the checking of domiciliary care staff. He said that they would be brought into the process "as soon as is reasonably practical".

"The CRB didn’t work as it should have done," he said. "We will bring in groups of workers when it is able to cope with them."

Patrick Carter, who led the review team, added that taking on more applicants at the moment would result in more delays as the CRB could not currently cope with any expansion.

The government claimed that the service has improved since last summer, with 80 per cent of standard disclosures and 50 per cent of enhanced disclosures being issued within three weeks. Nearly a million disclosures were issued during the last six months compared to 186,000 during the first five months of operation.