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Despite the Brexit process being well underway, the UK government has recognised that we need workers from the rest of the EU and further afield to work in our health services, care homes and other areas of the economy. Workers from overseas are entitled to the same rights as workers from the UK, so must be paid at least minimum wage, have the same holidays, pension rights and so on. Employers also have the same obligations to check that their recently arrived workers from overseas have nothing in their criminal records which should prevent them from working with vulnerable adults or children. But how do you check the records of someone who has been in the UK for a very short time only?

Most British workers are aware that in order to work with certain vulnerable groups, staff members need to be checked over by the authorities to make sure they are suitable for that type of work. Many other countries have similar legislation, aimed at protecting children from people who might cause them harm. There are separate bodies for checking people depending on whether you live in Northern Ireland, Scotland or England and Wales, and in most cases employers are fairly good at knowing the law and making sure they adhere to requirements. It’s not always easy to know where to turn if you are confused though.

If you’re in Scotland and are applying for certain types of roles in caring, hospital work or teaching, you’ve probably seen the term PVG. This is a relatively new term, and there’s still quite a lot of confusion about what it is, and what it all means.

It’s fairly common knowledge that people who work with children or vulnerable adults have to go through a process of being checked to make sure they’re suitable for the job and don’t have any criminal history which makes them inappropriate for working with these groups. There are separate organisations which administer these checks depending on whether you work in England and Wales, Northern Ireland or Scotland, but the process is basically the same for all workers. There is however more confusion when it comes to volunteers – who gets checked and who doesn’t?

If you’re living or working in Northern Ireland, you’ll know that although there are lots of things which are the same as in the rest of the UK, there are lots of differences too in the education or legal sectors. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) is separate from the Police elsewhere in the UK, and one of the other main differences which affects workers in Northern Ireland is the process for getting checks done by the Police when you’re applying for a job in teaching, hospitals or any other roles dealing with groups termed as “vulnerable”. The body which does this in Northern Ireland is called AccessNI.

Being accused of a crime and having to go through the whole process of police interview, going to court and sitting through a trial can be traumatic. It’s easy to think that a “not guilty” vote at the end of the trial draws a firm line under the whole matter. With DBS checks carried out as standard on a wide range of professions working with children and other vulnerable groups, one of the main worries is that the fact that you were accused and the matter went to trial could show up on any future DBS check which your employer carries out. Is this a legitimate concern?

Our society is becoming increasingly more open with information, and most of us are aware that we can request to see our medical records, or check our credit records to make sure that the information which has been held on us is accurate. Most of this access to information is covered under the Data Protection Act, under a process called a subject access request. This right also extends to information which is held by the Police on the Police National Computer which isn’t just a record of convictions or arrests – it also contains intelligence information which the Police may act on at some point in the future, and details of witnesses or any traffic accidents you have been involved in.

If you’re applying for a job which requires a DBS check, it sometimes comes as a surprise that the application to the Disclosure and Barring Service for a background check is made by the person concerned, not the employer. The employer may pay for the check depending on the policy, but the application form is filled in by the applicant, and when the certificate is issued, it is posted to the address that the applicant has given them. Depending on the circumstances, it could be days, weeks or even months until the applicant needs to show their DBS certificate to the employer. So, what happens if it gets mislaid or lost in the interim?

Thousands of people in the UK undergo the process of DBS checking annually, or the similar PVG checking in Scotland or AccessNI checks in Northern Ireland. This process is all about giving future employers or voluntary organisations information about your criminal record, and to flag up anything on your police record which might have an impact on your suitability to work with children or groups of vulnerable adults. The first part of this process is to prove who you are so that the employer can be sure that the checks are being carried out on the correct identity, and proving where you live so the information can be tied together and your certificate can be posted to your home address. DBS has strict rules about what sort of documents are acceptable as proof of your address.

Agreed – working in a bank isn’t perhaps the most glamourous occupation. It has perhaps the reputation for being a bit boring, but could applying for a job in the banking industry be the perfect career move? Here are some of the pros and cons of careers in financial services or banking.