Please find the below information about the 5 steps that are completed within Stage 4 of a UK Criminal Record (Enhanced, England & Wales) check.

As part of the UK Criminal Record (Enhanced, England & Wales) check, the application goes through a series of DBS checks and then a police station search which checks for police records associated with an individual.

There are 5 steps to this police station search that is completed at Stage 4.

Step 1:

The first step that is completed is an automated search of the Police Locum Cross Referencing System (referred to as the PLX by the Disclosure & Barring Service). This looks for matching individuals.

Please note this is different to the National Police Computer and contains information that is not on the National Police Computer.

Step 2:

As a result of this search, the application is then sent to all police stations that were flagged to have potential matches for the individual.

Note, even if your candidate has not lived in an area identified, the application may still be sent to any police station across the United Kingdom that flags as having a potential match.

Step 3:

Following the identification of police stations that have potential matches, this step alerts those police stations to complete a review of their local records for this individual application.

Step 4:

Now that the police stations are alerted to the application, they will complete a review to determine if the potential match that was flagged to them is this individual or if it was someone else with similar information.

If it is determined that it is the correct individual, then the police station will retrieve all held data it has regarding the match and individual.

Step 5:

Once the information is retrieved, the police stations first ensure they have all the required information. If there is any information missing, the police stations will search their records to see if this information can be found and then assessed accordingly.

Once the information is assessed, it will be reviewed. If it is relevant against the job title and level of check that has been requested by yourselves. If it applies, then it will be passed back to the DBS. If it is not relevant, it will not be shared with the DBS.

Any conflicting information will be reviewed and if necessary, escalated to Verifile for resolution during Steps 4 and 5.

Please note, if the application is escalated to Verifile, the check will be on hold until the conflict is resolved.

Following Step 5, the application is then returned to the DBS to complete the process, which is when they assemble the DBS certificate and complete any quality assessments.