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.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

Email(Required)

OptOut

From time to time, we will send you emails about selected products, events and services from Personnel Today and OHW+ - but you can choose to opt-out at any time. If you do not wish to receive these emails, please tick this box.

Phone

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Δ

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.