WILL PERTAIN TO PAIN FACT AND FASO CRB CAMPAIGN

[Alison J Stevens]

Written Answers - Home Department: Criminal Records: Vetting (15 Jul 2010)

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2010-07-15a.6545.h&s=sp...

Julian Brazier: To ask how many people have been prevented from taking
up posts involving contact with vulnerable persons as a result of
information disclosed in a Criminal Records Bureau check in each of the
last 10 years; and how many of those were (a) volunteers and (b)
applying for a paid position.

Lynne Featherstone: Independent research carried out between 2004 and
2009 demonstrates that the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) is continuing
to make a difference to the protection of children and the vulnerable.
Ultimately it is for the employer to decide, after full pre-employment
checks in addition to a CRB check and making a balanced judgment on the
basis of all the information available to them, as to whether an
individual job applicant is suitable for a particular position. The CRB
is not advised of the outcome of the recruiting decision and neither
the CRB nor the Home Office has any influence over this decision.

From the results of the independent research it is estimated that
around 130,000 unsuitable people have been prevented from gaining
access to children or the vulnerable, as a direct result of CRB checks
in the past six years:

20,000 in 2004 (out of 2.6 million checks)

25,000 in 2005 (out of 2.7 million checks)

15,000 in 2006 (out of 3.2 million checks)

20,000 in 2007 (out of 3.3 million checks)

18,000 in 2008 (out of 3.7 million checks)

33,000 in 2009 (out of 4.2 million checks).

These figures are not broken down by applications for positions working
solely with children or vulnerable adults or by paid or voluntary
positions.

The Home Office is committed to reviewing the criminal records regime.
The terms of reference for the review are currently under consideration
and further announcements will be made in due course.
Value-crb issues.