House of Commons - Home Affairs

Select Committee on Home Affairs Second Report

SECOND REPORT

The Home Affairs Committee has agreed to the following Report:—

CRIMINAL RECORDS BUREAU

"Dangerous people need to be stopped from working with children and young people. The creation of the Criminal Records Bureau is an important step towards achieving that".

Jack Straw, Home Secretary on Criminal Records Bureau website,
www.crb.gov.uk.

1. Few would dispute the need for accurate criminal records checks for those working with children or vulnerable adults. The new Criminal Records Bureau is due to start operating this summer. At the start of the year, the main issue of controversy about the Bureau was the proposed charge - expected to be in the region of £10 - for checking criminal records. MPs have received many representations from voluntary organisations pointing out that such a charge would cost them large amounts - £750,000 per annum in the case of the Scouts - and deter people from volunteering.[9] An estimated 41% of the population of the UK are involved in some form of volunteering.[10] Those working with children or vulnerable adults will need to obtain a certificate showing that they have no criminal record. We therefore decided to conduct an inquiry into the setting up of the Bureau.

2. The key questions we asked in this inquiry are:

Should those who volunteer to work with children or vulnerable adults be charged a fee for criminal records checks?

Will the Criminal Records Bureau be able to operate effectively when it opens this summer?

How accurate will its data be?

3. We have taken written evidence from the organisations and individuals listed on page xix. We took oral evidence from the Scout Association, the Guide Association and the National Childminding Association, who are all potential users of the Criminal Records Bureau's services; from the National Council for Voluntary Organisations and the National Association of Volunteer Bureaux; from the responsible Minister, Charles Clarke MP and Home Office officials; and from Mrs Elizabeth France, the Data Protection Commissioner. We are most grateful to the large number of people and organisations who sent us written evidence, and to those who gave oral evidence.

BACKGROUND

4. In 1990, the Home Affairs Committee inquired into various criminal records issues in its report Criminal Records.[11] The recommendations in the Committee's report included the creation of a statutory agency independent of the police to maintain the National Collection of Criminal Records, which would be responsible for providing criminal records for vetting purposes. The then Government rejected this proposal:

"The Government is not yet persuaded of the need to establish a statutory agency independent of the police to maintain the

collection".

5. Nevertheless, Government proposals for the establishment of an independent, centralised agency were published in the White Paper entitled On the Record in June 1996.[13] The main element was that the agency would widen access to checks so that all employers and voluntary organisations could ask a successful candidate to apply for a check. The agency would be self-financed by charges made for checks. These proposals were enacted in Part V of the Police Act 1997, and plans for the formation of the agency, to be called the Criminal Records Bureau, were announced in December 1998.[14]

6. The Criminal Records Bureau will issue certificates to people who live in England and Wales. There are separate arrangements for Scotland, where the Scottish Criminal Records Office will issue the certificates. Plans have not yet been finalised in Northern Ireland. The Government has announced that the Bureau will operate as a one-stop shop, bringing the expertise of government departments and the police under one roof.[15] It will use four primary sources of information:

The Police National Computer (PNC), which is a centralised information point for the police forces of England and Wales

Local police force records

Records held by the Department of Health about people considered unsuitable for work with children or with vulnerable adults

Similar records held by the Department for Education and Employment.

7. The certificates issued by the Criminal Records Bureau will be known as "disclosures". Under the terms of the Police Act 1997 there will be three different levels of disclosure provided by the Bureau:[16]

ASIC

ISCLOSURE

STANDARD DISCLOSURE - will be made available to those who are exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act such as those who work with children under the age of 18, and professional people such as barristers. The certificate will contain details of all convictions on record, including ones which would normally be "spent". In addition, it will include details of any cautions, reprimands or warnings held on the PNC. If the applicant will be involved in regular contact with children or vulnerable adults, the certificate will also give information on Department of Health and Department for Education and Employment records. Applications for the certificate must be countersigned by a Registered Body.[17] Standard disclosure certificates will be available when the Criminal Records Bureau is operational this summer.

ENHANCED DISCLOSURE - will be issued to a small number of people "who are in positions of special sensitivity".[18] As well as the information that would be in a standard disclosure, an enhanced disclosure will include information from local police records. Relevant non-conviction information may also be disclosed at the discretion of individual Chief Officers, either on the certificate itself, or direct to the Registered Body. Applications for the certificate must be countersigned by a Registered Body. This type of certificate will be available when the Criminal Records Bureau is operational this summer.

8. The Home Office envisages that Registered Bodies will be major voluntary organisations, such as the Scouts, and large employers. Many small voluntary organisations and employers will not wish to become Registered Bodies in their own right. They will be able to use the services of Umbrella Bodies, such as their local authority, who will countersign the application on their behalf. There will be a one-off charge of £300 to become a Registered or Umbrella Body.[19]

VOLUNTEERS AND THE CRIMINAL RECORDS BUREAU

9. This is the UN Year of the Volunteer. In the UK there are currently many government-led initiatives to encourage people to become volunteers, including the recently announced £300 million aid package to be spent over the next three years on encouraging more people to get involved in their communities.[20] We have received over 300 written submissions from the voluntary sector. They unanimously stated that making volunteers pay for Criminal Records Bureau certificates would be an unacceptable burden, totally at odds with the Government's attempts to encourage more people to volunteer. [21] The Guide Association told us:

"There is a philosophical question here, in that...volunteers believe that they are giving something to society, and they give willingly, and they give long, and they give a lot. To be faced with [being told]..."if you want to be a volunteer with young people, you will first have to pay to get yourself a criminal record check," now the message being given there is that we give to the public all this £320 million plus worth of work and we still pay for the privilege of giving that".

10. On the first day we took evidence, the Government announced in a written Parliamentary answer that criminal records checks would be provided free of charge to volunteers.

"We have listened very carefully to concerns expressed within the voluntary sector, and by others...we have concluded that standard and enhanced disclosures, which include those working in sensitive positions with the vulnerable, should be issued free of charge to volunteers."

Official Report, 6 February 2001, col. 504W. Charles Clarke MP, Minister of State, Home Office.

The Minister subsequently told us:

"The Government was acutely aware of the very many submissions that had been made by many Members of the House on this question, so we endeavoured to get to an answer to that point earlier than we would otherwise have done, because of the meetings of this Committee".

11. We welcome the decision not to charge volunteers for criminal record checks.

12. We appreciate that free checks for volunteers does not mean that voluntary organisations will face no extra costs as a result of the introduction of the Bureau. As well as paying the fee to become a Registered Body discussed in para 8 above, there will be administrative costs involved: The National Association of Clubs for Young People expects to need to employ two additional clerks to process an estimated 8,000 applications annually.[24] Paul Boateng expressed the Government's position during Home Department oral answers on 12 March: "This is an exemption [from charges] for volunteers, not for voluntary organisations".[25] The Scout Association told us in oral evidence that they felt it was appropriate for them to absorb operational costs:

"I would be very content to acknowledge that the registration cost to be a Registered Body and the operational cost, as being a responsible, national organisation, we are content to bear, provided that, obviously, they are reasonable...we are prepared to accept we have a responsibility to engage with those set-up costs".

13. It is difficult to estimate the level of demand from the voluntary sector for Criminal Records Bureau checks. Many Scout groups currently check all parents of members in case they are called upon to provide emergency transport or other help.[27] It is possible that the removal of fees for volunteers who apply for Criminal Records Bureau checks will encourage organisations to check more individuals than originally planned, or recheck volunteers more frequently. The Criminal Records Bureau will need to ensure that it is able to cope with a surge in demand.

"The decision just taken to make disclosures free of charge for volunteers is likely to increase the demand from the voluntary sector. People will make decisions to check them frequently, things of that nature. You get interesting interactions."

Q159 (Mr Herdan, Criminal Records Bureau Chief Executive)

14. It is not possible to judge whether the decision to provide free checks for volunteers will lead to a substantial increase in estimated demand from the voluntary sector although we believe this to be likely. We recommend that the Criminal Records Bureau should be prepared for a possible surge in demand from the voluntary sector when drawing up its operational contingency plan.

OTHER USERS OF THE CRIMINAL RECORDS BUREAU

15. Although criminal records checks will be provided free of charge to the voluntary sector, the Criminal Records Bureau will still operate on the principle of full cost recovery, and other users will have to pay for certificates. We expect the Government to announce the fee levels shortly.[28] Many employed people who apply for a certificate from the Criminal Records Bureau will be low wage earners.

"The Government remains of the view that even in the context of the relatively low paid people...the kind of order of fee we are talking about is not prohibitive."

Q119 (Mr Clarke)

16. The Minister told us in oral evidence that people who are employed to look after children and vulnerable adults would not be expected to bear the cost of free checks for volunteers:

"When you take the costs of what would have been the charge for the volunteers, that is being subsidised from two sources. Firstly, an overall Exchequer grant because of the overall government policy on volunteers, and, secondly, to a very small extent, by the increase in charges for employees

17. The average net weekly earnings of a registered childminder in England and Wales are £106 a week.[30] In recognition of the difficulties which childminders face, the Government has introduced start-up grants for childminders in parts of England worth approximately £300. As people who have substantial unsupervised access to children, childminders would need to undergo the enhanced level of check. Members of their family who are over the age of 16 would also need to have checks.

18. Gill Haynes of the National Childminding Association told us that it would not be unusual for four members of a childminder's household to be over 16, and therefore to need criminal records checks.[31] She believed that childminders would be unable to afford even as little as £10 per enhanced check:

"I envisage a huge falling out [from childminding] of people who already feel that they are being marginalised, in many ways...and feeling that these additional costs, perhaps of £40 or £50 per household, are just too heavy for them to bear at the moment".

19. We questioned the Minister about the seemingly opposing Government policies of establishing a system of start-up grants for childminders, and then charging them for criminal records checks. He told us:

"There is an argument that if it is in the policy interest of, for the sake of argument, the Department of Education, the Department of Health, the Department of Social Security, to encourage, for example, childminding...they should pay for it rather than the Home Office or somebody else paying for it".

20. In the era of joined-up government it is anomalous that, while one Government Department gives childminders start-up grants, another is proposing to charge them for the criminal record checks that they need before they can become practising childminders. We were concerned to hear that there had been no discussion of this issue between departments.[34] The Government must find a joined-up way of meeting the costs of the Criminal Records Bureau; and we hope that this will also stimulate better co-ordination of other policies affecting low wage earners.

ACCURACY OF THE RAW DATA

21. Although the Criminal Records Bureau will manage the process of issuing criminal records certificates, the information contained on them will come from many different sources. Certificates will obviously be worthless if this information is inaccurate.

22. As we explained in paragraph 6, the Criminal Records Bureau will use four main sources for its information. The Police National Computer (PNC) will be the Bureau's major source of criminal records information. The 43 forces in England and Wales currently record over 5 million offences each year. The PNC is a national system which depends on all forces entering high quality, accurate and timely data to common minimum standards. The Bureau will use an application of the PNC known as Phoenix.

23. The Home Office Police Research Group's 1998 report on Phoenix data quality raised a number of concerns about the PNC:

"The report made clear that the introduction of Phoenix and the move to the creation and maintenance of records by local forces rather than a central point, has had a significant impact on overall data quality. The report identified a number of significant problems regarding the timeliness, accuracy and completeness of Phoenix records".[

24. A recent report by the Chief Inspector of Constabulary entitled On the Record, which was published in July 2000, also looked at Phoenix data quality. It showed that crime record error rates were between 15 and 65%, and reported substantial delays in updating records by some forces. The report concluded that:"Overall the level and nature of errors, omissions and discrepancies found were unacceptable given that these same issues were raised in the 1998 Police Research Group's report".[36] In the light of these reports the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has produced a compliance strategy designed to improve data quality on the PNC.

The Home Office certainly does not have a defence against the charge that the police records system is seriously inadequate...This has been the case consistently for a very long period of time and it is exacerbated by the fact that we have hand data collection...we have not got proper IT connections and all the rest of it. It is a very bad state of affairs and it is one the Government gives a very high priority to solving.

Q193 (Mr Clarke)

25. We questioned the Home Office about what the consequences would be for the Criminal Records Bureau of the large scale of inaccuracies that seem to be present on the PNC. Mr Bernard Herdan, Chief Executive of the Criminal Records Bureau, told us:

"There is a lot to be done but, of course, these large percentages - I do not wish to diminish the significance of the problem - which are quoted by the media, 60/70/80 per cent errors, are every kind of error or omission, including the colour of people's eyes and the fact the postcode is missing, as well as the things that are very important".

26. The police are responsible for the entry of all data onto the PNC, including that which comes from other agencies. The Data Protection Commissioner told us:

There is importance in making sure that input data is accurate, that there are not huge time lags, that it is understood that all the data is needed, things which might not seem important. Let us take something like postcode. It might seem a tedious thing to put into the record, but when you are faced with millions of applications when we get to the basic level certificate, however careful CRB have been to be satisfied that you are the person you say you are in applying for a certificate, if there are inaccuracies historically in how the record was sorted out, then that does not help to make sure you get the right information

If the people inputting it [the data] do not really understand the value of it at the other end of the process, then there is a problem.

Q217 ( Mrs France, Data Protection Commissioner)

27. The results passed from the courts to the police run into many thousand daily. The ACPO standard is for the police to enter all court cases into the PNC within 72 hours of the information reaching them. The Home Office memorandum admits that: "performance on such aspects by individual police forces has varied considerably".[39]

28. The Chief Inspector of Constabulary reported that the delay in entering court results into the police computer system varies from 15 days at best to 354 days at worst.[40] Forces claim not to have the resources to check that information sent to them is accurate: ACPO said: "Unless there is an obvious error there is no checking on the accuracy of the court results".[41]

29. The Home Affairs Committee's report Criminal Records, published in 1990, recommended that:

"When the National Collection of Criminal Records is computerised, court clerks rather than police forces should be responsible for providing records of court results to the NIB (National Identification Bureau)".

The Government agreed with the Committee's recommendation: "The courts should assume responsibility for transferring this information".[43]

30. In 1995 the Masefield Scrutiny into the Criminal Justice System also recommended that courts should input data directly onto the PNC.[44] ACPO told us that: "The accuracy and timeliness of the court results could be dramatically increased if the courts entered their own results".[45] To date these recommendations have not been put into effect.

31. The Government intends to join up IT across the criminal justice system, and each of the major components - the police, Prison Service, Probation Service, Crown Court, magistrates' court and Crown Prosecution Service - is involved in developing major IT programmes, which should come into use between 2003 and 2005, with the aim of ensuring that "information can be shared and exchanged between these systems":[46]

Current plans are that court results will be passed from the court systems to the police Case Preparation system (under NSPIS-the National Strategy for Police Information Systems), and the appropriate results will be selected and forwarded by the police system to the PNC

32. It would be unacceptable if errors on the Police National Computer let even one undesirable person through the checking system. Equally, inaccurate data should not be allowed to traduce a blameless individual. The manifest levels of Police National Computer error make us doubt whether it can support a system of criminal records certificates.

33. Delay in entering information onto the Police National Computer undermines the accuracy of the system. The police seem unable to overcome this. We recommend, as did our predecessors in 1990, that court clerks take over responsibility for entering court results directly onto the Police National Computer within 24 hours of conviction.

THE OPERATION OF THE CRIMINAL RECORDS BUREAU

34. The Criminal Records Bureau will be an executive agency of the Home Office. It is being run through Private Public Partnership (PPP) in conjunction with Capita, an information technology services company, who were awarded a 10 year contract after a tendering process with a shortlist of three bidders.[48]

Capita's role will be to deliver, manage and own the technical solution, and eventually to operate a large proportion of the application process.

(Home Office evidence, Appendix 1, para 18).

35. Recent concern about the Immigration and Nationality Directorate's casework project in conjunction with Siemens has focused attention on PPP work. The original IT applications agreed for that project in 1996 are now seen to be too complex, and interim IT measures have had to be put in place. The Siemens contract with IND runs until 2003.[49] The Criminal Records Bureau's operation will be extremely reliant on information technology. We have seen how the introduction of IT in other parts of the Home Office, such as the Passport Office and the Immigration and Nationality Directorate, have gone badly. Equally, we have seen how under-investment in IT systems can hold back the Home Office and we commented on this in our report, Border Controls, in relation to the Immigration Service.[50]

36. We were concerned that the complexity of the IT system being developed for the Criminal Records Bureau, coupled with the short timescale to the opening of the Criminal Records Bureau this summer, could lead to problems if the IT systems were not found to be wholly robust.

The CRB service cannot and will not be allowed to go live until systems have been fully developed and tested and there is a high degree of confidence in the service being delivered to appropriately high standards.

(Home Office evidence, Appendix 1, para 77).

37. We asked the Chief Executive of the Criminal Records Bureau, Bernard Herdan, if he was confident that the IT systems would provide satisfactory performance standards when the Bureau began work. He told us:

"We are...going to start with a pilot operation. Before we go on to full scale operation with all comers we are starting with the current organisations that are currently checked so there is some build up of our experience before we hit the maximum volumes we can see".

38. We welcome the decision that the Criminal Records Bureau should run a pilot scheme before becoming fully operational. This will give the Bureau the opportunity to refine its operation so that applications are processed quickly and accurately.

39. We were reassured by Mr Herdan that, although the Bureau will operate in England and Wales, its IT systems will be able to capture criminal records information from the whole of the United Kingdom. We were concerned that the Bureau would be unable to obtain criminal records information from foreign countries in respect of foreign applicants, or those who had spent prolonged periods outside the United Kingdom. Mr Herdan agreed that this might be a problem:

"That is a gap that we have identified, really, in the way that the legislation was framed and the way the CRB has initially been established. We do not have the right and means to check that information overseas. We would flag up to an employer that there are gaps in someone's record if that was the case".

40. The Bureau's IT systems will bring together for the first time large volumes of information, from at least four disparate and perhaps incompatible systems. The speed and accuracy of the IT systems, and the ability to deal with high demand, will be vital.

41. Currently, the time taken to process criminal records checks can vary widely between police forces. Disputes over the contents of a check can delay the process still further. The Welsh Affairs Committee, in their report Childcare in Wales, highlighted the concerns of the childcare sector in Wales at the time taken to process applications.[53] The evidence we have received shows that this is a concern throughout the UK, and that the introduction of the Criminal Records Bureau should improve the situation. The Data Protection Commissioner told us:

"This system which is being set up now is infinitely preferable in my view to the sort of fairly uncontrolled, in the sense that there was not a clear structure, process we are using at the moment".

42. We believe that the processing of applications with minimal delay should be a high priority for the Criminal Records Bureau. Where disputes arise over the information contained on a certificate it is important that the complaint is dealt with quickly. Mr Herdan assured us that service standards will ensure that applications and disputes will be dealt with within a reasonable timeframe.[55]

43. The best and worse case scenarios might be:

BEST CASE SCENARIO

Wider access to criminal records information means that far fewer dangerous people are able to gain access to children and vulnerable adults

The new centralised service is a marked improvement on current arrangements

The Bureau's IT systems ensure that the service is swift, and few applications lead to disputes that information is inaccurate

WORST CASE SCENARIO

IT systems perform inadequately and the Bureau is unable to cope with the level of demand for checks

There are delays of many weeks in processing applications

Unsuitable candidates are able to slip through the net and gain access to children and vulnerable adults

44. We conclude that it is more important for the Criminal Records Bureau to get it right when it does open than for it to start operating in July 2001, its original target date.[56]

RESOURCING

45. Estimates of the level of demand for the Criminal Records Bureau's services have varied widely. The Home Office's provisional estimates indicated a total volume of 8 million applications per annum. A revised estimate increased this to 9 to 12 million annually. In April 2000 the likely level of demand was estimated to be closer to 5 million annually. As we pointed out in para 13 above, the introduction of free checks for volunteers may make demand higher than expected.

46. Although demand for checks will inevitably fluctuate from month to month, there will be certain running costs, such as staffing, which are constant. The need to balance finances so that these costs can be met will be essential to the Criminal Records Bureau's success when it becomes operational. We were therefore concerned that the Criminal Records Bureau has as yet produced no detailed financial forecasts for the first five years of its operation.

47. We understand that other new bodies such as the Electoral Commission had to have detailed five year plans in place, covering expenditure and revenue up to 2005-06. The Minister told us during oral evidence: "We are still not in a position...to publish in a coherent way all the various... financial elements which add up to the budget, the business plan, the fees and so on".[57]

48. We find it unacceptable that a body established under legislation four years ago is not able to publish detailed financial estimates in the way required of other agencies.

CONCLUSION

49. We welcome the Government's decision to provide free criminal records checks for the voluntary sector and acknowledge the strength of opinion from that sector - made clear in oral evidence to us - which helped to persuade them to do so.

50. The quality of data on which the Criminal Records Bureau will rely seems to us to leave much to be desired. If the underlying data is inadequate the Criminal Records Bureau will never be able to operate effectively. The Home Office must ensure that improvements are made to the quality of data stored on the Police National Computer. The Criminal Records Bureau should closely monitor the number of complaints it receives that certificates are incorrect in the first year of operation.

51. The target of becoming operational by this summer seems ambitious. We believe that it is important for the Criminal Records Bureau to get it right. We welcome the decision to operate a pilot scheme. Effort should be concentrated on ensuring that the Criminal Records Bureau will operate effectively when it starts, rather than opening earlier and performing inadequately.

52. We agree with the Home Secretary that dangerous people must be stopped from working with children and vulnerable adults. We believe that the Criminal Records Bureau has an important role in making this a reality.

9 Appendix 2, para 11. Back

10 1997 Survey of Volunteering. Back

11 Third Report from the Home Affairs Committee Criminal Records, HC 285 of Session 1989-90. Back

12 Government Reply to the Third Report from the Home Affairs Committee, Session 1989-90, Criminal Records Cm 1163. Back

13 On the Record, Cm 3308, June 1996. Back

14 Home Office press release 494/98 : Criminal Records Bureau to strengthen child protection safeguards, 14 December 1998. Back

15 Criminal Records Bureau Brochure: Safer Recruitment to Protect the Vulnerable. Back