CRB Checks

techuser — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 12:46:55 +0000

Keywords:

A while ago I had a CRB check at work. There were servers onsite used to host websites for schools and so, to be safe, everyone was checked with the Criminal Records Bureau. It was more to give customers confidence than for any practical reason.

What sticks in my mind was this:

I received a copy of the CRB results, and naturally the employer received their copy. Mine letter and results were of course marked 'confidential'. The odd part was that the employer wanted to have a photocopy of my results in addition to what they received - they are not supposed to do that. I remarked to the HR person at the time that it was a bit odd, but I wasn't opposed to letting them have a look at my "private and confidential" documents.

The next day I receive an email from the boss. I'm not a good communicator perhaps, as by the time my quip had been relayed to his ears it'd changed its meaning and he'd taken some offence.

The email stated why the CRB was done, why it was important, why they wanted it, etc. etc. - missing the point of my light-hearted concern that they wanted copies of my documents, labelled explicitly as for my eyes only, when they had received their own versions.

The best part was that in the email I was assured that the CRB check was completely confidential. To highlight this, he extracted details from my results and placed them in the email (fair enough that the 'details' were that there was nothing on CRB).

Technological Wanderings - criminal records bureau

CRB Checks