CRB Announces New Procedures
Following recent correspondence with the Criminal Records Bureau, the procedure for trans people to follow in order to obtain a CRB check without revealing their gender history to their employers has been simplified.
The relevant section of the corredspondence with the new point of contact at the CRB, Katie Howell, is reproduced below.
I am now the point of contact for these sensitive applications and have been for about a year now. I have revised the Confidential Checking Process so it is more applicant friendly and easy to use.
If a Trans person is required to complete a CRB Disclosure, they can choose to use the Confidential Checking Process or not. If an applicant chooses not to use the process and is happy for their previous details to be disclosed on a completed Disclosure, the applicant completes the Disclosure Application Form (DAF) as they normally would.
If an applicant decides they do not wish for their previous details to be disclosed to their employer and/or on the completed Disclosure, they should call me direct. Then I will advise the applicant what to do.
An applicant may not feel comfortable talking to me with regards to this, if this is the case the applicant will need to call me to advise of the named person that I am to deal with on their behalf. The applicant can also speak to via email if they prefer. The applicant is to email CRB with: info@crb.gsi.gov.uk requesting that their details are forwarded to me as they wish to use the confidential checking process.
How the process works:
The applicant calls me and I advise the applicant that “we do have a confidential checking process in place for applicants who do not wish for their previous name/gender to be disclosed on the completed Disclosure”. I advise the applicant not to enter the previous name(s) on Section C part of the DAF and then complete the rest of the DAF as they normally would. Just before or at the same time the DAF is submitted, the applicant must send direct to me a document that can confirm the previous name(s) they used e.g. Change of Name Deed, Original Birth Certificate. A Gender Recognition Certificate is not required for this part of the process. The applicant should include a short covering letter that confirms their current name, full address with postcode and a contact telephone number. In some cases the applicant does not have any documents to confirm their previous name, if so, the applicant just needs to give me a call to discuss. A pro forma is no longer required or necessary for this process.
Once this letter is received, I will monitor the application everyday until the Disclosure is completed. If any queries are raised it will be me that deals with it or if I need further information, it will be me that contacts the applicant.
I also advise the applicant when they first call that “if you have a conviction in your previous name/gender, this may show on the completed Disclosure”. If an applicant does have a conviction which may disclose their previous name/gender, it would be useful for the applicant to advise me of this on the initial call. An applicant may be able to prevent this from happening, so advising me sooner rather than later will help speed up the process.
My Address is:
FAO Katie Howell,
1st Floor South,
Criminal Records Bureau,
PO BOX 165,
Liverpool,
L69 3JD
My Direct contact number is: 0151 676 1452
