News summary

Criminal Records Bureau sets up employee checks

EMPLOYERS in England and Wales will soon be able to check the criminal records of pharmacists through a new one-stop disclosure service that will be offered by the Criminal Records Bureau.

The CRB has been set up to help employers “identify people who might be unsuitable to work in certain professions and occupations, including work that involves contact with children or vulnerable adults”.

A spokeswoman from the CRB told The Journal that this would include pharmacists. The service will be available from the autumn to organisations that currently have access to police records, and to other organisations from early next year.

The procedure will be that on selecting a successful candidate for a post, a prospective employer will ask for a disclosure. An application for disclosure is then signed by the candidate and a “registered body” and sent to the CRB.

The CRB then sends a copy of the disclosure to the prospective employer and to the candidate. The employer will then decide whether to go ahead with recruitment. Disclosures will cost £12, unless the candidate is a volunteer, in which case there is no charge.

Registered bodies are likely to be trusts or large pharmacy companies who wish to check the records of prospective employees.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society will not become a registered body, because it is notified of all criminal convictions already and because it does not have the resources to support a service to all pharmacists and to all prospective employers of pharmacists. Registered bodies will have to comply with a code of practice to ensure that all disclosure information is treated confidentially.

Currently, employers who wish to check the suitability of candidates have to make separate enquiries of the police, the Department of Health and the Department for Education and Skills.

More information is available on www.disclosure.gov.uk, the website of the bureau.

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