News

Changes in Vetting and Barring Arrangements

On Monday 10 September the UK Government brought the following changes into effect:

• the repeal of previous plans for compulsory registration with the Vetting and Barring Scheme and continuous monitoring
• a new definition of regulated activity that a barred person must not do
• repealing an intermediate category of work involving some contact with vulnerable people or access to their records, known as 'controlled activity’
• introducing a minimum age of 16 at which someone can apply for a CRB check; and
• more rigorous relevancy testing for when the police release information held locally on an Enhanced CRB check.

You will wish to be aware of these changes. These new arrangements will be overseen by the Disclosure and Barring Service to be established by the Home Office, which will merge the current functions of the Criminal Records Bureau and the Independent Safeguarding Authority and begin operations in December this year.

Further information about these new measures can be found on the Home Office website.