Licensees recruiting staff may have a useful new ally

by David Clifton of thePublican.com's legal team of experts from London solicitors Joelson Wilson​

The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) opened for business in April of this year to take on the role of providing access to information on criminal records held by the police and various government departments.

The CRB can act as a "one-stop-shop" for obtaining information from the police national computer, local police force records and records held by the Department of Health and the Department for Education and Employment. Although the CRB was introduced to make the checking of police records easier, it came in for much criticism last month for the increasing delays in obtaining the results of checks.

Most notable among the criticism was the fiasco surrounding the administration of checks in respect of new teachers at the start of the school term. Thousands of new teachers were prevented from starting their careers in the classroom as delays of between 12 and 26 weeks were reported.

There are three levels of disclosure available, basic, standard and enhanced all of which cost £12.

The standard and enhanced disclosures will only be applicable to individuals working with children.

Accordingly, basic disclosure is of the most relevance to publicans and workers within the pub industry. A basic disclosure check will result in the production of a computer printout of an individual's unspent convictions.

Any convictions, which have become spent after the relevant period of time, as set out in the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, will not be displayed.

However, basic disclosure requests can only be made by the individual concerned, not by the employer or a prospective employer. An employer can make a request for the proposed employee to obtain a basic disclosure check. However, he cannot insist upon one.

The basic disclosure could prove to be a useful tool to employers wishing to check the possibility of criminal backgrounds of future bar or door-staff. The CRB states publicly that it aims to complete checks for basic disclosure within a week.

However, the sheer demand for disclosure evidenced by recent experience shows that recruitment problems could be exacerbated as prospective employees may face increasing delays in obtaining the required clearance from the CRB before being allowed to take up their posts.