Protect your Organisation, your People, and your Property.
Reduce employee theft, reduce turnover, and improve workplace safety and morale by selecting employees that are honest, safe and reliable. A criminal record check is a crucial step toward a comprehensive employee screening programme.
As a registered body and agent of the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB), Disclosure Scotland and AccessNI, BackCheck is perfectly positioned to offer the appropriate level of criminal record check for any employment position.
BackCheck combines industry leading processes and technology to deliver world-class results.
- Online Results Delivery in Real Time – our technology is highly secure and easy to use.
- Best Practices Advice When You Need It – our Criminology Experts are available to discuss the convictions that we uncover.
- Customised Implementation – our experienced team of Client Care Coordinators will help you design a programme that is efficient and effective for your organisation.
Increase Hiring Efficiencies | Secure User-Friendly Technology | Highest Quality Results
As an employer, you need to balance your duty of care towards your business with respect for your employees’ privacy. To this end, there are three levels of criminal record disclosures available in the UK. Knowing which level your candidates require ensures that you’re getting enough information to make an informed hiring decision and satisfy any regulatory requirements, but not so much that you’re infringing on your candidates’ privacy and leaving yourself vulnerable to charges of discrimination. BackCheck can help ensure that you are getting the appropriate level of criminal record disclosure for each employee, and that you understand your responsibilities in using the information revealed.
The three levels of criminal record disclosures relate directly to a piece of legislation titled The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (ROA). This legislation was introduced in order to protect individuals who are convicted of minor, one time offences, from future discrimination by stating that certain criminal convictions can become ‘spent’ after a specified period of time (the ‘rehabilitation period’). Once a conviction has become spent, an individual can truthfully declare that they do not have a criminal record. Employers cannot legally ask candidates about spent convictions, and cannot consider them in recruitment decisions. However, some positions are exempt from this legislation. For more information on exempted positions, click here.
Read more about the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.
There are three levels of criminal record disclosure available in the UK – a Basic disclosure, a Standard disclosure and an Enhanced disclosure:
- Basic Disclosure: This level of disclosure searches the Police National Computer for convictions which are not spent under the terms of the ROA. It discloses all such convictions, or states that there are none.
As it discloses only unspent convictions, a Basic Disclosure is available to any individual applying for, or already employed in, any position. For this reason, it is the most commonly ordered disclosure and is suitable for all industries and levels of candidates.
The typical turnaround time for a Basic Disclosure is 5-10 business days, although this can vary depending on the provider’s service levels.
- Standard Disclosure:: This discloses details of all spent and unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings on the Police National Computer (PNC).
In order to submit a CRB application for a Standard check, an individual must meet certain eligibility criteria. Click here to find out if your candidate may be eligible for a Standard Disclosure.
The typical turnaround time for a Standard Disclosure is 5-10 business days, although this can vary depending on the provider’s service levels.
- Enhanced Disclosure: This discloses details of all spent and unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings on the Police National Computer. An Enhanced Disclosure may contain non-conviction local police force information. Based on address history provided by the candidate, the disclosure request is sent to the Chief Constable or Chief Officer in the appropriate location. The Chief can choose to add any non-conviction information (e.g. suspicions) if they feel it relevant to the position applied for. Depending on the position applied for, an Enhanced Disclosure will also check the relevant ISA barred lists to ensure the individual is not barred from working with children and/or vulnerable adults.
In order to submit a CRB application for an Enhanced check, an individual must meet certain eligibility criteria. Click here to find out if your candidate may be eligible for an Enhanced Disclosure.
The typical turnaround time for an Enhanced Disclosure is 4-6 weeks, although this can vary depending on the provider’s service volume levels.
Download: BackCheck Criminal Record Check Service Brochure (105KB)
