As a Response to Recommendations Made by HMICFRS, the Government has Published Draft Legislation Permitting Fire and Rescue Services to Undertake DBS Checks

Afzal found the organisation to be institutionally misogynistic and racist. HMICFRS has since made similar findings.

Those working in and supporting the sector recognise that Fire and Rescue services need to understand its culture, whether that be by way of cultural review or by way of a form of workforce engagement, in order that the Service can work to improve its culture and so far as is possible, reduce instances of poor behaviour. In addition to understanding its own culture, it seems obvious that anyone recruited should share the same values as the Fire Service. Indeed the HMICFRS have identified background checks for new recruits as being necessary. According to their recent report on values and culture, the way in which the Fire and Rescue Services carry out background checks is inconsistent. Further, the Fire Standards Board’s safeguarding standard states that FRSs must “implement appropriate and proportionate processes that minimise the risk of recruiting people who may be unsuitable to work with those who are at risk of harm”. Further the NFCC have also called on the Government to introduce, as a minimum, Disclosure and Barring Service checks for all new staff.

The Government last week published new draft legislation which will enable the Fire and Rescue Service to carry out standard level Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) when recruiting checks on new employees. Currently the Fire and Rescue Service can only carry out basic level DBS checks, which reveal only whether a person has a current (unspent) criminal record. A standard level DBS check provides information on spent convictions, cautions, reprimands and final warnings (subject to the DBS filtering rules) as well as a person's unspent criminal record. It will also allow the Fire and Rescue Service to take a person's spent criminal record into account when deciding whether they are suitable to work for the Fire and Rescue Service. The eligibility for standard DBS checks will extend to the appointment of all Fire and Rescue authority employees, whether operational or non-operational.

As Fire and Rescue Service employees will only be 'eligible' for standard DBS checks, it will not be a requirement to carry them out on successful job applicants. Each service can therefore decide whether to carry a Standard DBS check on newly appointed employees. However, they will help the Fire and Rescue Service take more informed decisions on suitability when making appointments and we anticipate that they will become common practice.

All employers who are able to access a job applicant's spent criminal records history must take care to treat those individuals fairly and consistently when it comes to using criminal records information. We would advise all employers who are able to access spent criminal records information to have a policy on the recruitment of ex-offenders, which includes how they will assess and store criminal records information in a lawful manner.

Whilst the proposed changes are only draft at this stage, we do not envisage that there will be opposition to the amendment and subject to sufficient parliamentary time, we believe that it is likely to receive approval shortly. We will continue to report on developments.

For more information, please contact Allison Cook in our Public Sector team on 0117 314 5466. Alternatively, please complete the form below.