Written question asked by Lord Moonie (Labour), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Baroness Neville-Jones (Conservative) on Thursday, 20 January 2011.

Criminal Records Bureau

Question: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what safeguards exist to ensure the accuracy and currency of data held by the Criminal Records Bureau; and what redress exists for individuals who consider such information to be incorrect.

Answer: The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) operates a quality framework which is designed to evaluate and assure the accuracy of CRB checks using performance measures and quality indicators. The CRB Police National Computer (PNC) matching process is certificated to comply with ISO 9001:2008 standard. The CRB has achieved consistently high performance levels on its checks with 99.996 per cent of checks issued accurately. A very small number of people do unfortunately receive details of criminal convictions attributed to them which are found subsequently not to apply to them. There is a disputes process through which challenges may be made. Where mistakes have been made, the CRB will put things right as quickly as possible and the CRB operates a scheme in line with HM Treasury guidelines through which customers may seek financial redress where there is evidence that the CRB did not follow its procedures correctly.

Secondary information