why does a CRB check takes weeks when the police have a national computer system?

Question

Perhaps a Plod could advise?

Answer 1

CRB checks don't come from the Police Force they come from a company that the government uses for some of its work. I can imagine the time it takes is because of the sheer number of checks they have to do.

Answer 2

It has nothing to do with the police, please see below.

The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB), an Executive Agency of the Home Office, provides wider access to criminal record information through its Disclosure service. This service enables organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors to make safer recruitment decisions by identifying candidates who may be unsuitable for certain work, especially that involve children or vulnerable adults. The CRB was established under Part V of the Police Act 1997 and was launched in March 2002.

Prior to 2002, access to police checks was mainly confined to organisations in the statutory sector for staff who had ‘substantial unsupervised access’ to children. There were many other organisations that could not access these checks and yet had staff with similar access to vulnerable groups. The CRB enables many more organisations to access these checks as part of good recruitment practice.

Organisations wishing to use the service can ask successful job applicants to apply for one of two types of check. The type of check required will depend upon the nature of the position. These are called Enhanced and Standard Disclosures, both require a fee but are free of charge to volunteers.

Answer 3

The CRB's Disclosure service provides access to a range of different types of information, such as informarion that is:

held on the Police National Computer (PNC), such as, convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings in England, Wales and those recorded from Scotland. There is also some Northern Ireland conviction data held on PNC.
held by local police forces relating to relevant non-conviction information
from the Government's Protection of Children Act List (PoCA)
from the Government's Protection of Vulnerable Adults List (POVA)
held by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) under Section 142 of the Education Act 2002.(formerly known as List 99.)

Given the number of sources that have to be contacted, I would guess is the reason for the delay.