Criminal Records Bureau (Hansard, 16 December 1999)

§ Lord Bassam of Brighton

On 14 December 1998, (House of CommonsOfficial Report, col. 356) my right honourable friend the Home Secretary announced in a reply to my honourable friend the Member for Brighton Kemptown (Dr Turner) that we would be setting up a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) in Merseyside to implement Part V of the Police Act 1997. The function of the bureau will be to issue certificates to applicants, including people who wish to apply for posts involving working with children and vulnerable adults. On 20 July (House of Commons, Official Report, col. 464) my right honourable friend the Minister of State for the Home Department (Mr Boateng) announced in a reply to the honourable Member for Aylesbury (Mr Lidington) that he was reviewing the timetable for the delivery of the CRB and that he would inform the House of the results after the recess.

My right honourable friend the Home Secretary has confirmed that Bernard Herdan, the newly appointed chief executive of the United Kingdom Passport Agency, will also be in charge of the CRB. He will chair the CRB Management Board and account to my right honourable friend the Home Secretary, to Parliament and to stakeholders for the CRB's performance. Some administrative support functions will be provided to the CRB by the United Kingdom Passport Agency, but in general it will operate as an entirely separate business unit and will be publishing its own business plan and annual report.

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My honourable friend the Minister of State for the Home Department (Mr Clarke) has reviewed the delivery of the project to establish the CRB within the framework of a public private partnership. A dedicated team has been established in Merseyside to deliver the project. A business prospectus was issued on 8 October and a bidders conference was held on 14 October. My honourable friend is pleased to report that there has been a susbstantial amount of interest from potential private sector partners, and bids were received on 19 November and are under evaluation. Shortlisted bidders will be invited to take part in a technical design study next spring and we hope to be in a position to let the contract around the middle of next year. It will then take about six to nine months to install the necessary systems and recruit the staff before the bureau is ready to receive applications for registration from employers requiring access to the highest level certificates on behalf of their employees.

The aim is that the CRB should then move on to the next stage and start issuing certificates in July 2001. This is later than our original estimate, but this is a challenging programme and it is important that the timescale is realistic. Priority will be given to issuing the highest level of certificate, the enhanced criminal record certificate, for those seeking positions which involve regularly caring for, training, supervising or being in sole charge of persons aged under 18. The CRB's services will expand over the subsequent year so that by July 2002 it should be issuing all three levels of certificate provided for in the legislation.

In the course of the review, we have decided that it is not necessary to proceed with earlier plans to procure accommodation to house the whole of the CRB's staff. While it remains our intention to accommodate the bureau's core public sector staff in Merseyside, we think it right to give our private sector partner the flexiblity needed to produce the best, most cost-effective solution. The project will continue to be managed from Merseyside.