Criminal record check mistakes have doubled

The number of errors by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) has doubled in the past 12 months.

The Daily Telegraph has reported that 1,570 people were wrongly given criminal records, mistakenly given a clean record, or accused of more serious offences than they had actually committed, in the 12 months to 31 March.

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A copy of the CRB’s annual report, to be published next month, shows 3.9 million certificates were processed by the agency – an increase of 500,000 on 2007-08 and the highest figure since the agency’s creation.

In October 2009, a new centralised vetting system for people banned from working with children and vulnerable adults comes into force under the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act.