Registering as a charity: evidence of CRB disclosures

From 1 October 2007 when an organisation applies to register as a charity that works with either children or vulnerable adults, we will ask them to confirm whether CRB disclosures have been obtained for any trustees who are either legally required to, or who are allowed to, obtain a disclosure, before we register the organisation.

We have revised our policy on asking to see disclosures at registration following consideration of the responses to our consultation on CRB checks, which we carried out earlier this year. However, our general policy position on CRB checks remains that:

CRB checks are currently the best way for trustees to check whether a fellow trustee is disqualified from working with vulnerable beneficiaries. For this reason the Commission's policy is that trustees:

• must obtain a CRB disclosure when there is a legal requirement to do so; and
• should obtain a CRB disclosure when there is a legal entitlement to.

All charity trustees have a duty of care, and a duty to act solely in the interests of the charity. The Commission believes that charity trustees risk being in breach of these duties if they fail, without good reason, to carry out appropriate CRB checks when they are entitled to do so. In some circumstances such failures may be viewed as evidence of misconduct and/or mismanagement in the administration of the charity.

Charities which have submitted applications to us prior to 1 October will still need to provide original disclosure notices for scrutiny in accordance with the previous policy.