Graham Stuart, MP for Beverley and Holderness, today said he was disgusted with the failure of Humberside Police to carry out criminal record bureau checks within a reasonable time.The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) was introduced in 2002 and annually processes more than three million applications. It tasks all police forces with making detailed checks on the background records of people working with children, patients and the vulnerable.
Graham said: “This is simply not good enough. CRB checks are a vital part of the protection process for children and vulnerable adults.
“The delay in processing them stops people taking up work and has a crippling impact on voluntary groups who have to get their volunteers approved. The Humberside police are seriously lagging behind virtually every other constabulary in the country and local people are being let down.”
And he added: “I am disappointed the force has been unable to drag itself from the bottom of the national table when it comes to carrying out this vital work. Every delay by police means another teacher, care worker or nurse who cannot take up their role.
“This situation has gone on long enough and should not be tolerated. I met with the Chief Constable Tim Hollis after last year’s dreadful figures were revealed, met with front line staff and was promised the situation would be rectified. Clearly, however, it has not been.”
“I have written today to the Chief Constable asking for an urgent explanation of what has gone wrong, why he hasn’t been able to tackle problems that were all too evident a year ago and what exactly he intends to do now to take the local service up to levels taken for granted nearly everywhere else.”
A spokesman for the CRB said: “Failure to achieve this target may affect the CRB’s ability to meet its public service standards for Enhanced CRB checks.”
The CRB carries out basic checks itself, but where additional information may be required from the Police National Computer for Enhanced CRB checks, then these are the responsibility of the police force area where the application is made.
The full table of police force CRB performance figures can be seen at: www.crb.gov.uk/Default.aspx?page=3790
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