As an individual you are not entitled to ask for a check on yourself. The check must be requested by the employing organisation and you need to consent to the check being requested. In most cases, it will be the employer who will pay for the cost of the Disclosure and if you are a volunteer then the check is free from the CRB.

An employer can only ask about your spent criminal convictions if the position involves working with children and vulnerable adults. For some jobs is is a statutory requirement to consult various lists of people banned from working with children and vulnerable adults. This can only be done through a criminal records check.

In asking for a criminal records check, your employer must comply with various conditions regarding the confidentiality of someone's criminal records information, as well as ensuring that an ex offender is not discriminated against unfairly. They must have informed you that you will be asked to undergo a check before making you a conditional offer of employment.

If your employer is registered to use WCVA CRU then we will send them a blank application form, which will be passed to you for completion. You will need to provide some evidence of identity and the documents must be shown to your employer, who will advise what is acceptable.

You will receive your own copy of the Disclosure certificate from the CRB. The second exact same copy is issued to us as the CRB registered body and we forward this to your employer. We do not make any recommendations on the suitability of an applicant. We DO NOT keep any record of the convictions information appearing on any certificate.

You may have been asked by a previous employer to undergo a check. A new employer is entitled to ask for a new check relevant to your new position.

An applicant guide, together with further information, is available from the CRB website Disclosure. You can also download a copy from resources below.

These documents are available in pdf format on the Resources page.