Essex: County Council Checking Up A Lot

10th February 2012, 14:24

Essex County Council has carried out more background checks on its staff than any other council according to new research.

Three million background checks were done in England and Wales last year with 22,000 of them by our County Council. 

The extent to which councils used the system varied widely, with Wakefield Metropolitan Council making just 877.

The campaign group Big Brother Watch, which released the data following a Freedom of Information Act request, said the figures were "a sad indictment of a country that has lost all sight of proportion and has substituted common sense for a piece of paper".

Nick Pickles, its director, said: "For nearly three million people to be checked in just one year is remarkable.

"Given just how many organisations now have access to the system, there is a clear risk that it is easy to delve into someone's private life and run a CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) check without them ever knowing.

"The checks have already been shown to wrongly brand innocent people as criminals and cost people their jobs for totally unrelated incidents that would not suggest they pose a risk.

"It's time to go back the drawing board and fundamentally reform the CRB system."

The Government has outlined plans to reform the system of criminal records checks, saying it was time to return to a more "common sense" approach.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced last February that the current system will be scaled back and only those working most closely with children or vulnerable adults will need to undergo the checks.

Essex County Council says the reason it did so many checks is because it also carries out them out for other organisations as well itself, such as charities, social care providers and schools.