Looking at how the Criminal Records Bureau operates

14 Dec 07

As chief executive of the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB), Vince Gaskell is directly responsible for the agency that carries out records checks as part of the Security Industry Authority’s licensing process. Is the organisation meeting its targets, and how is the relationship with the Regulator developing?

By Anthony Hildebrand

Anthony Hildebrand drops in at the CRB’s headquarters for a detailed Question and Answer session.

Security Management Today (SMT): We believe that you are currently consulting on the Criminal Records Bureau’s Code of Practice, first published back in 2001. What can you tell us about the findings to date? Are any particularly strong themes emerging?

Vince Gaskell: “It’s too early to say at the moment. Of course, what we already have in place is a set of guidance notes and procedures that sectors using our service – including the security industry – really need to follow. However, they were published and established before the agency was first launched. Much has changed since then.

“We have already learned a good deal from five years of operating the checking scheme, and it’s now working well. What we’d like to do is put much firmer and clearer guidance in place within the Code of Practice that people need to follow. That’s linked to our programme of moving to a situation where we have fewer organisations that can access our service.

“That doesn’t mean to say fewer people can access us but fewer organisations, who are actually better skilled and better trained to do what they need to do, particularly around identity management. In tandem, we need to revisit the Code of Practice to make sure we can encourage the new cadre of organisations that use our service to more clearly follow those elements they need to.”

Police database access

SMT: There’s work being done to implement Sir Michael Bichard’s recommendations. How is that progressing, in particular as far as access to the police service database is concerned?

Vince Gaskell: “The Criminal Records Bureau was directly responsible for the implementation of a number of the recommendations put forward by Sir Michael Bichard. All those elements that we’ve been responsible for, we’ve either implemented already or we are now well into the implementation arrangements.

“In relation to other data sources, we’ve done a number of things. First and foremost, we’ve sought legislative changes that would allow us to access other data. What people may not be aware of is that we were initially constrained by the data sources we could access. We sought changes. Ministers duly enabled those changes, which is particularly good news.

“The second thing we’ve been doing is working with a number of ‘non-geographic police forces’, like the British Transport Police (BTP) for example, who are not one of those whom we could originally access. We’ve worked extensively with them. They’ve never had to provide information of the kind that we need for disclosures.

“We’ve gone through an enormous piece of work with the BTP to put them in a position where they have the equivalent facility that all police services have, to provide information that may be relevant to employers. We’ve done that. We’ve implemented it. So has the BTP, and its data is incorporated into the service.

“What we’d like to do is put much firmer and clearer guidance in place within the Code of Practice that people need to follow”

“The data from the Serious and Organised Crime Agency is now incorporated into the service, so is that of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, Scottish Police Data and that of the Armed Forces. We’re working very closely with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to add MoD police data, too. We’re also collaborating with British Nuclear Fuels. With five years’ experience gained, we’ve decided it would be really beneficial for employers to incorporate those data sources.”

Overseas criminal records

SMT: Is work being done on exchanging criminal records information with officials from overseas?

Vince Gaskell: “That’s a further extension of this work. Your original question was about other data sources, and we’ve tackled them in the UK. We should never forget that. There’s often a clamour for data from abroad, but actually people could source this from their own routes if they really wanted to.

“However, what our customers are saying is that they would like this incorporated into the disclosure service. What we’ve been doing, then, is pursuing two parallel work streams.

“The first area we’ve been examining very closely is the inclusion of other police-type data within the service.

“The second element involves working closely with our colleagues in the Home Office – in addition to other Government departments – to see if we can access European Union criminal records information.

“We have also chosen a non-EU country to work with that provides a number of people who work with children and vulnerable adults, and that’s Australia – Australian nationals that come to the UK. We’ve been working with the Federal Police Authorities there to see if we might be allowed access to their data as well.

“As you can see, the work we’ve been doing is quite broad. One of the successes so far is that whereas in the past a UK national who is convicted in the European Union would not necessarily have had that recorded on police databases in the UK, the police service and the Government have already been successful in bringing about a change here.

“Now, that data should – and I emphasise the word ‘should’, as it depends on how other countries are operating their policies – find its way onto UK police systems. There ought to be a systematic way in which that happens. That being the case, when we search the Police National Computer we’ll be able to pick up such information and then include it on a subsequent disclosure.

“Again, that’s a significant advance. Clearly, the next stage is to see whether we can gain access to conviction data on non-UK nationals who have been convicted overseas. Certainly, there is a thrust of that work within the Home Office that we are supporting in the hope significant progress can be made.”

SMT: You’ve introduced a new quality assurance framework in the past year in conjunction with the police service to improve the efficiency of enhanced checks. How is this panning out in practice?

Vince Gaskell: “It’s progressing very well indeed. One of the things we’re well aware of here is that each police service has designated people who take decisions on what information to reveal. In the past, they’ve had their own business processes in place. That has led to some differences and inconsistencies in the application of judgement. Exercising judgement is always difficult, but there has been some variation in its application. With this in mind, the Home Office has appointed Judge Rhys Davies, a retired circuit Court judge, to monitor both the quality and consistency of decision-making.

“What we have done in collaboration with the police is to develop the Quality Assurance Framework. This is a standardised process, with standard risk-based templates, to enable chief police officers to make decisions on what information they reveal in given circumstances. We believe this will bring about a greater degree of consistency in the decision-making process, and the way in which this task is undertaken across police forces.

“All police forces have been trained, and there is now a gradual implementation of procedures across them all. Most of them are already using the framework to some extent. That’s part of the implementation process. We expect that all police forces in England and Wales will be using it fully by April of next year.

“The benefits for members of the public, and for those that use our service, will be that they ought to see better application of guidance and greater consistency in terms of what’s revealed on a disclosure. We can help police chiefs actually do what is a really difficult job – in other words, trying to decide what information is relevant to reveal or not as the case may be.”

SMT: New targets are involved with the framework, focusing on enhanced checks. Are these being met?

Vince Gaskell: “We have developed a Service Level Agreement (SLA) with the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), and it’s subject to annual review with them. As part of that process, we agree to set targets with ACPO to clear a proportion of its cases in x days, y days and, ultimately, to clear 99% of them in 60 days. By and large that’s going pretty well.

“Since we introduced the revised SLA, police service performance has improved considerably to the point where the CRB is now meeting the key targets set for it by Government and ministers. For instance, now we’re completing 95% of our highest checks, the enhanced disclosure, in our target time of 28 days. We were not doing that at this time last year. This is down to the good work of my staff here at the CRB, but also due to a tremendous response from police forces across England and Wales to meet set targets.”

CRB/SIA relationship

SMT: How does the day-to-day relationship between the CRB and the Security Industry Authority actually work?

Vince Gaskell: “I would say our day-to-day working relationship with the Regulator is excellent. Last year, for instance, we completed over 116,000 checks for the security industry. That’s in the context of finalising between 3,000,000 and 3,500,000 checks overall. In terms of the checks we carry out on behalf of the security sector, 99% of them are submitted by the SIA.

“Most applications for our checks are handwritten, but one of the things we arranged with the Regulator from the outset is that it passes information to us on pre-printed forms, which means that we receive a far greater degree of accuracy of completion in the forms submitted via the Regulator than we do from most other organisations using our service. This is because the SIA has the necessary processes in place for the licensing arrangements to collect much of the data we actually need.”

SMT: Is there anything that the Security Industry Authority could do to improve its service from your point of view?

Vince Gaskell: “One of the things I know the SIA is keen to do – and we are very keen to do also – is introduce electronic disclosure applications. If they’re collecting the data, and they have it available electronically – which they must do, because they pre-print the forms – wouldn’t it be great if they could just send that data to us electronically?

“One of the developments we’ve started within the agency is to introduce electronic disclosure applications. We would welcome the SIA being one of the first organisations to work with us on this.

“Obviously, there are other organisations that use our services to a greater extent than the SIA, but 100,000 applications per year is actually a large number.

“I’m due to meet with the Regulator’s new chief executive Mike Wilson in the very near future, and this is one of the issues I will want to talk to him about. I’m sure there will be a willingness on the Regulator’s part to examine this issue. Hopefully, it will simply be an electronic file transfer.

“At the moment, the SIA has to refer forms to us on an individual basis because that’s the way the current arrangements work. So even though it gathers the data on many applications for licensing, the SIA has to pre-populate an individual form before it’s sent to the CRB. We think that’s bureaucratic and time-consuming, not to mention rather expensive.

“We’d like to move to a situation whereby the SIA might send a file of applications to us electronically that we may then be able to deal with electronically and return electronically. That’s the future.”

SMT: In terms of criminal record checks on overseas workers, a lot of security guarding companies employ a good many of these individuals. Are there specific measures put in place at the moment to ensure such background checks are as robust as they possibly can be?

Vince Gaskell: “One thing people need to remember about the CRB is that we provide information to employers within the confines of what information is available, and within existing legislation. Clearly, the burden of responsibility on deciding whether or not to employ someone, and what background checks to complete in relation to them, rests squarely with the employer.

“There are ways in which employers can try and gain access to information about people from overseas, and it’s not necessarily via ourselves. On our website we provide a range of information that would allow employers to contact the relevant authorities in certain countries to try and find out information on certain individuals.

“Our accuracy levels are exceptionally high. They’re 99.98% at the moment, in fact. In an organisation like this, because of the nature of the work that we do, our risk appetite in the area of accuracy is exceptionally low”

“For instance – and this may not be directly pertinent to the SIA – if someone wanted to employ a security officer from, say, Germany, they ought to be able to ask that person to ask their own police authorities for a genuine certificate of conduct.

“In other parts of the European Union, it may be possible to approach the relevant police authorities for a copy of whatever conviction information they have to hand.

“That is down to the employer and the individual. What we are trying to do here with our colleagues in the Home Office is to find a way at a national level whereby we can try and facilitate procedures for the future. That’s going to take some time, because it will require European Union legislation.

“In the interim, there are alternative ways in which employers can try and secure access to the information if they believe it is necessary, depending on the specific job for which they are looking to employ a given individual.”

Time and accuracy issues

SMT: In the past, there have been some dissenting voices concerning the turnaround times taken to complete criminal checks. Obviously you’d never want to sacrifice accuracy for speed, but are targets being achieved in this area?

Vince Gaskell: “Yes, absolutely. To be honest, it’s a bit frustrating for us when individuals begin to mention difficulties in the past. Those difficulties were in 2002. It’s now 2007, and the CRB has consistently been meeting the targets set for it by ministers for a number of years.

“At the moment, our performance for enhanced disclosures is 95%. The target is 90% in 28 days. We’re completing 95% in 28 days. Our performance for standard disclosures is 99% in ten or 12 days – it’s quite phenomenal. We don’t have backlogs, the police don’t have backlogs. We’ve removed them. They went a long time ago.

“You mentioned that we should never sacrifice accuracy for speed, and I couldn’t agree more. Our accuracy levels are exceptionally high. They’re 99.98% at the moment, in fact. In an organisation like this, because of the nature of the work that we do, our risk appetite in the area of accuracy is exceptionally low. We are constantly reappraising what we can do to further improve it. Nevertheless, I would say that our accuracy levels are excellent. We’d like them to be even better, and we’ll strive towards that.

“On the back of this, 87% of our customers are saying that they are satisfied – or more than satisfied – with our service right across the board. That, I believe, is a measure of the distance between the service that was being provided in 2002 and what’s there now. We currently provide a much more consistent, more reliable and accurate service, and we’re meeting our targets.”

SMT: At the moment, organisations can determine for themselves when they re-check staff. Is there not an argument for a compulsory re-checking period?

Vince Gaskell: “I think there’s been some healthy debate in the past about whether there should be a pre-determined re-checking timescale and policy. Bear in mind that the CRB doesn’t set that policy, and neither does the Home Office. That’s a task for the relevant Government departments, and thus far those Government departments involved haven’t seen the necessity to do so.

“Individual employers, therefore, are making their own judgements on this matter. However, looking forward to the implementation of the new independent safeguarding authority, which is an arrangement that’s scheduled to come in late next year, the belief is that there will be less need for repeat checks.

“Clearly, the finer details still have to be worked through, announced and brought into being, but that’s most certainly the feeling at the present time.”

All you need to know about... the Criminal Records Bureau

The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) in an Executive Agency of the Home Office first established in 2002 to help organisations in England and Wales make safer recruitment decisions by providing access to criminal record information.

The organisation primarily serves as a ‘one-stop-shop’ for agencies – including the Security Industry Authority (SIA) – checking police records and, in relevant cases, information held by the Department of Health in addition to the Department for Children, Schools and Families.
There are two levels of CRB check: Standard and Enhanced Disclosures. Standard Disclosures show current and spent convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings held on the Police National Computer. If a post involves working with children or vulnerable adults, the Protection of Children Act List, Protection of Vulnerable Adults List and information held under Section 142 of the Education Act 2002 (formerly known as List 99) may also be searched.

Enhanced Disclosure is the highest level of check available. It contains the same information as the Standard Disclosure, but with the addition of any relevant and proportionate information held by the local police service.

The CRB explains: “We recognise that the Standard and Enhanced Disclosure information can be extremely sensitive and personal. Therefore, we have published a Code of Practice and employers’ guidance notes for recipients of disclosures to ensure they are handled fairly and used properly.”

A copy of the disclosure is sent out to applicants as well as the Registered Body (such as the SIA). Registered Bodies check and validate the information provided by the applicant on the application form, establish the true identity of the applicant, ensure the application form is fully completed and the information accurate, countersign applications to confirm the organisation has an entitlement to access criminal record information and comply fully with the Code of Practice.

Following the Soham murder cases, in 2004 Sir Michael Bichard presented a report which included recommendations on vetting procedures (including broader access to databases and ‘systems for checking identity’). Recently, trial results of a new service using ID cards to help make criminal record checks faster and more robust have been well received by the CRB.

All you need to know about... Vince Gaskell (chief executive of the Criminal Records Bureau)

A career civil servant, Vince Gaskell joined the public sector straight from university and has worked there ever since. He boasts a wide-ranging operational and head office background, gained primarily in the Department for Work and Pensions. Gaskell has sat on the Boards of a number of Government agencies.

In his time as chief executive at the Criminal Records Bureau, Gaskell has truly established the organisation as an Executive Agency of the Home Office, successfully managing its separation from the UK Passport Agency as well as achieving the target of the organisation being self-funded by 2006-2007.

From 1999 through to 2003, Gaskell was a Board member and ‘change director’ for the Child Support Agency where he led the transformation programme to restructure front line services and deliver improvements in performance under the original child support scheme.

He worked for the Benefits Agency from 1991 to 1999, becoming programmes director in 1994, and liaised extensively with other Government departments, the Treasury and the Post Office to agree a strategy for eliminating paper-based methods of benefit payment.

Gaskell began his civil service career with the Department of Social Security back in 1972. He holds a BA degree in earth sciences gained from the Open University.

Postscript :

Photographs courtesy of The Home Office Press Office.