Written question asked by Stephen O'Brien (Conservative) on Thursday, 4 December 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 8 December 2008. It was answered by Meg Hillier (Labour) on Wednesday, 10 December 2008 on behalf of the Home Office.

Health Professions: Vetting

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether care providers are informed when Criminal Records Bureau checks on their prospective employees are discovered not to have been correctly carried out; what estimate he has made of the number of such checks; and if he will provide compensation to care providers for such cases.

Answer: I have been asked to reply.All the quality control procedures at the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) are geared to achieving the highest levels of accuracy. In addition, the CRB carries out a post disclosure accuracy check that analyses all aspects of the disclosure application and its issue. This check was introduced in 2007 and is based on a statistical sample of disclosure applications and from that sample it can be ascertained that the accuracy rate for 2006-07 is 99.94 per cent. and for 2007-08 is 99.98 per cent. No comparative data is available before these dates and the CRB does not collate information by specific employment sectors, such as the care sector or providers.If, as a result of this additional check, the CRB needs to correct a disclosure, it does so free of charge to the employer and the applicant.As with any public sector organisation, the CRB operates a Redress Scheme where there has been evidence of maladministration on its part.

Secondary information