Standard And Enhanced Criminal Background Checks
Many positions involving close or unsupervised contact with children and vulnerable adults require an enhanced CRB check.
This takes longer than the standard criminal background check and covers much more. A broad spectrum of workers from teachers to casual volunteers on sports teams require the enhanced CRB check rather than the standard. Most NHS jobs or those in childcare, prison services, or teaching also require some form of criminal background check.
The standard criminal records check involves police records of convictions, cautions, official warnings, and reprimands in England and Wales, and at the very least relevant convictions in Scotland and Northern Ireland. If the candidate has spent any time living in Scotland, Scottish police records are checked even if the position is elsewhere. The records of the British Transport Police are also checked, and if relevant, so are those of the Royal Military Police and Ministry of Defence Police.
Even the standard check may contain details of spent convictions. Those are the ones that may have been removed from a person’s criminal record under an official good behaviour bond or other agreement. Although these do show up on a standard CRB check, a candidate with only spent convictions technically has no criminal record.
Enhanced CRB checks consider more sources than the standard. Any information the local police force holds on an individual is generally fair game. Official lists of individuals barred from working with children are checked by the enhanced version only, and you must provide a justification for wanting access to this level of information. See our post on the Independent Safeguarding Authority for more.
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