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25 June 2008
More than 20,000 unsuitable people were stopped from working with children and vulnerable adults last year as a direct result of checks by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB), latest figures show.
The figures for the year 2007 published today bring the total of unsuitable people prevented from working with vulnerable groups to more than 80,000 in the last four years.
In addition to high levels of protection for children and vulnerable adults, the CRB has achieved record levels of customer satisfaction with 92 per cent of customers reporting they are pleased with the service they have received.
The CRB helps organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors identify candidates who may be unsuitable to work with children or other vulnerable members of society.
Other figures from the 2007 Customer Satisfaction & Impact Survey carried out by MORI show that:
- 92 per cent of customers are satisfied with the service provided by the CRB, with 38 per cent of these being very satisfied;
- 71 per cent of customers would speak highly of the CRB checks as an additional recruitment tool;
- Nearly nine out of ten customers say that using CRB checks improves their confidence in the recruitment decisions they make; and
- In nearly nine out of ten cases, an applicant’s criminal record did not prevent them from being employed.
Home Office Minister Meg Hillier said:
“The Government takes the protection of children and vulnerable adults extremely seriously and the CRB plays a vital role in helping us fulfil this duty.
“These results are impressive and clearly demonstrate that employers also recognise the importance of CRB checks in the protection of the most vulnerable in our society.”
CRB Chief Executive Vince Gaskell said:
“Last year saw a number of important firsts for the CRB in terms of cost, performance and customer service.
“It was the first year that we were able to freeze our fee levels; it was the first year that we achieved over 90 per cent customer satisfaction and it was the first year that we not only achieved but exceeded our targets for issuing CRB checks.”
These results come on the back of the publication of the agency’s Business Plan for 2008/09 which sets out its priorities for the coming year.
It shows how the CRB intends to restructure its customer-services, develop and expand its existing services through the development of new electronic application services, increase the range of criminal data used in the Disclosure Service, and expand its role in supporting the local police Disclosure Units.
Notes to Editors:
1. The CRB was established under Part V of the Police Act 1997 and commenced operation in 2002.
2. The CRB provides access to criminal record information through its Disclosure Service. It enables organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors to make safer recruitment decisions by identifying candidates who may be unsuitable for certain work, especially that involving children or vulnerable adults.
3. The CRB has issued more than 16 million CRB checks and has the capacity to process in excess of 300,000 checks every month.
4. CRB now has access to over 55 million pieces of non-conviction information, via its PLX database, held by:
- Police Forces of England, Wales and Scotland;
- British Transport Police;
- Police Service Northern Ireland; and
- Service Police Crime Bureau (SPCB)
5. The CRB has 4,900 Registered Bodies. These are organisations registered with the CRB which are legally entitled to request the information which the CRB provides.
6. The Customer Research and the Business Plan can be downloaded from the Business Publications section of the Resource Library available from the CRB’s website www.crb.gov.uk (new window)
