Background checks

The Metropolitan Police Service is required under Part V of the Police Act 1997 to consider whether it holds any relevant information that ought to be disclosed in relation to persons seeking access to children and the vulnerable. The purpose of this Act is the protection of the vulnerable.

The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) wholly funds the operation of this process on a fee per check basis.

The Metropolitan Police was unable to return 90% of all applications within 10 working days during 2004/5. The annual percentage figure was 74%.

The Metropolitan Police Service is resourced on a predicted number of checks. However, neither the MPS nor CRB can control this figure. The year 2004/2005 saw an increase in the number of checks, possibly as a result of the Bichard enquiry into the murders of Jessica and Holly in Soham. As an example the number of checks received in August 2004 was 34,760 and in March was 46,548.

The Criminal Records Bureau and the MPS have developed an excellent working relationship. In order to support the MPS they have supplied staff from Liverpool, funded temporary staff, agreed to the employment of more permanent staff and funded necessary improvements to the IT.

These steps will increase capacity and improve performance. They will not impact the arbitrary 90% figure in the first half of this year as checks are cleared. No reduction in the rigor applied to this process can be considered to rush through applications because of the possibly unrecoverable consequences to a child or elderly vulnerable person.