Is background screening a legal requirement? If not, what checks should I be doing and why?

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This article discusses any legal requirements of background screening versus the risks of employing the 'wrong' person.

There are several industries where regulatory compliance is a critical consideration within an organisation’s pre-employment screening activities.

Whether it’s the Senior Manager Certification Regime in financial services, the Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) in the public sector or CQC Employment Check Standards within the health and social care sector, the obligations these regulations (and several others like them) place on employers should never be overlooked.

Regulation doesn’t affect every employer, however.

For every regulated sector, there are far more whose screening procedures are driven by little more than accepted best practice and a desire to do the right thing.

The risks inherent in having the ‘wrong sort’ of person within their workforce matters here, not appeasing a regulator.

In such cases, there’s rarely such a thing as a standard set of checks that a business should run.

It’s about considering where the greatest risks lie and creating a package of checks that best suit that employer’s needs, addressing key areas such as identity, experience, and any relevant credentials.

Verifile cannot provide legal advice about your requirements and this should be sought from your own legal / compliance department. 

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