NCAS news: CRB checking procedures are still inconsistent

Inconsistencies are still present in Criminal Records Bureau checking procedures, delegates at the National Children’s and Adult Services Conference heard today.

Chris Webb-Jenkins, a partner at Browne Jacobson Solicitors specialising in social care law, said the potential for different practices on CRB checks to be followed from one area to another still existed.

He said that the police were able to use their discretion to decide what “soft” information they had on a person needed to be disclosed for a check and that they would not simply provide all the information they held.

“If you request a CRB check at enhanced level it’s still the decision of the local police constable what information they have on their file that consider to be relevant,” he said.

Webb-Jenkins also told delegates that there were no government plans to try to harmonise the way information was shared by public sector orgnisations across the UK and instead it was to be left up to individual agencies to develop local information- sharing protocols.

Contact the author
amy.taylor@rbi.co.uk

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