FAQs about the online system

Q. Why are CRB Disclosure Checks required?

CRB Disclosure Checks are required to help organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors identify candidates who may be unsuitable to work with children or other vulnerable members of society.

Q. What is DiscloseIT?

DiscloseIT is a service used by <the registered body> to collate, check and validate the information that the CRB require to perform their checks, once this process is complete <the registered body> will submit your Disclosure Application to the CRB.

The actual Disclosure Checks are performed by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) which is an executive agency of the Home Office.

Q. What is the role of the CRB?

The role of the CRB is to provides access to criminal record and other information to organisations in England and Wales through a service called Disclosure. Its specific purpose is to help organisations make more informed decisions when recruiting people into positions of trust.

The Disclosure service is also available to other professional, licensing and regulatory bodies whose volunteers, employees and licensees are not necessarily in direct contact with the vulnerable, but still need to uphold the highest standards of professional performance and Disclosure can help improve these recruitment decisions as well.

Q. Why am I being asked to apply for a Disclosure?

You may have been asked to apply for a Standard or an Enhanced Disclosure if you will be working with children or vulnerable adults, or have applied to be a foster carer, adoptive parent or childminder.

A Disclosure may also be required for a range of other types of job or licences.

Q. Can I refuse to apply for a Disclosure?

Yes. However, there are some posts for which a Disclosure is required by law. If you refuse to apply for a Disclosure in this instance, the organisation would be within their rights not to take your job or licence application any further.

If you are currently working and your employer asks you to apply for a Disclosure, you may be able to refuse if your contract of employment does not refer to a criminal record check.

Q. Is the web interface secure?

A. Yes the web interface will deny access to candidates' details and application status without login and password.

Q. Does the web interface require the candidate to provide 5 years of address history?

A. Yes before a candidate can submit their online application a check is carried out that the candidate has a fully recorded five-year address history without gaps.

Q. Can an applicant submit an incomplete online application?

A. No the system stop you from submitting incomplete application forms, but will allow an applicant to save an incomplete form which can be completed during another visit to the site.

Q. Does the candidate have to provide documents as proof of identity and address.

A. Yes candidates are advised of the necessary minimum of Group 1 and Group 2 documents that are used to confirm candidate identity/address. The documents are not submitted online and the organisation requesting your CRB Check will advise how to submit them.

Q. I already have a Disclosure, can I use it again?

If you are asked to apply for a Disclosure and you already have one for a previous role; ask if the organisation is willing to accept it.  When making this decision the organisation may wish to contact the organisation who requested the disclosure to verify the details and they will invariably take into account the level of Disclosure; the length of time that has elapsed since the Disclosure was issued; the nature of the position for which the Disclosure was issued; and the nature of the new position. Ultimately, it will be the decision of the organisation whether to accept it or not.

Q. How will I know which level of Disclosure is required?

The decision of what is the appropriate level of Disclosure for the role lies with the organisation that has asked you to apply.

Q. What if I have lived overseas?

If you have lived overseas for a substantial period of time, there may be problems in applying for a Disclosure, as the CRB does not generally have access to overseas criminal records.

Equivalent information can where available be obtained from the overseas authorities so discuss this with the organisation who has asked you to apply for a CRB check as some organisations have a legal responsibility to check if a person is banned from working with children or vulnerable adults and can only do this through the Disclosure service.

Q. What information is available through the Disclosure service?

To enable them to perform Disclosure Application Checks the CRB has access to a broad range of different types of information including:

• Information held on the Police National Computer (PNC) such as:.
• • convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings in England, Wales
  • convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings recorded from Scotland.
  • conviction in Northern Ireland
• Information held by local police forces relating to relevant non-conviction information
• Information from the Government's Protection of Children Act List (PoCA)
• Information from the Government's Protection of Vulnerable Adults List (POVA)
• Information held by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) under Section 142 of the Education Act 2002 (formerly known as List 99)

Q. Who will receive my Disclosure?

When the application is processed, the CRB sends out a copy of the Disclosure, containing any information revealed during its searches, to you and the person who countersigned your form.

Q. How do I know that the information contained on my Disclosure will remain confidential?

This is a secure website protected using an authentication and encrypted communication protocol for transmitting data securely over the Internet.

Organisations using the CRB Disclosure service must comply with the CRB Code of Practice, which is there to make sure the whole process works fairly and that any information revealed is treated fairly and securely.

Under the provisions of the Code, sensitive personal information must be handled and stored appropriately and must be kept for only as long as it is necessary. The Code is published on the CRB website, or you can request a copy from the person who asked you to apply for the Disclosure.

The CRB is committed to compliance with the Data Protection Act. This means that any personal information that is submit to them will be protected.

Q. What if I have a criminal record that may not be relevant to the position for which I am applying?

The CRB have been introduced safeguards and guidelines to ensure that conviction information is not misused and that ex-offenders are not treated unfairly. Ex-offenders will retain the protection afforded by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

Q. For how long will a Disclosure be valid?

Disclosures do not carry a pre-determined period of validity because a conviction or other matter could be recorded against the subject of the Disclosure at any time after it is issued. It is normally the policy of the organisation requesting a disclosure that dictates when it will need renewing.