PROCESS OF CHECKING

  The process of completing a check at the behest of organisations employing individuals with unsupervised substantial access to children is as follows:

  1.  The application for the said check is sent from a nominated officer from the organisation concerned on an application form, which is signed by the applicant, thus consenting to the check.

  2.  Upon receipt, the application is date stamped and the following checks are carried out:

—  Checks on the Police National Computer Convictions Database, including checks with the National Identification Service at Scotland Yard if any offences disclosed are still held as a manual record.

—  Checks on our Local Crime Information System.

—  Checks on the Old Crime Information System.

—  Check on the Force Intelligence System.

  3.  If any information regarding non conviction information is disclosed on the latter two systems, that is details of allegations that, for some reason, have not proceeded to Court, or there has been a finding of non guilt or discontinuance, the information is reviewed from the hard copy prosecution file and an officer of ACPO rank makes a decision as to whether disclosure is applicable in the circumstances.

  4.  If an applicant has had an address outside the Force area within the last five years which is disclosed on the application form, checks are made with the force in which the said applicant resided at the time. They check their local computer systems and may disclose any applicable information.

TIME TAKEN TO DO A CHECK

  This is contingent on the level of checking that is required. Obviously, if we have to make checks with other forces, turnaround times will be greater. The same applies if we have to request a manual record from the National Identification Service. Due to the extremely heavy workloads, it can take anywhere between three weeks to two months to process an application.

CONFIDENTIALITY

  To safeguard the information provided, this Force will only reply to nominated officers. We have specimen signatures of those individuals on file. We have served indemnities on all organisations to which we provide information, seeking to protect ourselves should wrong information be given. In terms of the information supplied, the most contentious aspect of the operation is the review and supply of non convinction information. You may be aware that under the current Home Office Guidance, information can be shown to an individual in the case of discrepancies and disagreements. I am not sure what procedures our nominated officers have in terms of policy when the police supply the said information.

INCREASED DEMAND

  Resources for the function of child vetting have always been a problem within this Force. The level of demand for the service is ever increasing, with the result that turnaround times always suffer. It is very rare that we can meet the suggested turnaround time of three weeks as delineated in the Home Office Guidance. Obviously, with the heightened awareness, certainly within the Force area due to the North Wales Abuse Tribunal Enquiry, I expect the number of checks to increase further, year on year. Additionally, with having to check the four computer systems this, in itself, is a cumbersome procedure. This Force received approximately 13,000 requests for a Police Check last year. That equates to approximately 52,000 actual physical computer checks. An IT solution is currently being examined in this regard.

W J Williams

Criminal Justice

16 November 1998