Overseas

The CRB cannot currently access overseas criminal records or other relevant information as part of its Disclosure service. If you are recruiting people from overseas and wish to check their overseas criminal record, a CRB Check may not provide a complete picture of their criminal record that may or may not exist.

To help you get a fuller picture of their background, the CRB provides guidance on how you can get further information from the countries listed right.
 
If the country that you are looking for is not listed you may wish to contact the country’s representative in the United Kingdom. Contact details for those countries that have a representative in the United Kingdom can be found on the Foreign and Commonwealth website www.fco.gov.uk/lds (new window) , telephone 020 7008 1500, or on a document found on the Australian Government's website.

Please note: The CRB is not involved in the processing of applications made by individuals to overseas authorities and therefore will not be responsible for the contents or the length of time taken for information to be returned.

For up-to-date information on the cost of an enquiry to a particular country's representative, please see the Foreign and Commonwealth Office website using the link provided above.

The information provided by overseas authorities may be in the language of the country to which the application was made.  It may therefore be necessary for customers to have this information translated.  The CRB does not provide information about translation issues.

Employing migrant workers

It is a criminal offence under section 8 of the Asylum and Immigration Act 1996 to employ someone subject to immigration control aged over 16 who does not have leave to be in the UK or undertake the work in question.
 
You can establish a statutory defence from conviction under section 8 by seeing, copying and retaining the copy of certain specific documents at the point of recruitment which demonstrate that the work is permitted and by satisfying yourself that the documents relate to your potential employee. The defence is not available if you know that the work is not permitted or if you undertake the checks after employing an indivdual.
 
A CRB check will not provide a section 8 statutory defence and you should accordingly undertake the document checks to acquire the section 8 statutory defence prior to the employment commencing as well as undertaking the CRB check.
 
The Border and Immigration Agency operate an Employers' Helpline and and Employer Checking Service to assist employers with undertaking the appropriate document checks. Further details of these services and comprehensive guidance on the law on preventing illegal working can be found at www.bia.homeoffice.gov.uk/employingmigrants (new window)