Service to offer free criminal checks for unpaid volunteers

Individuals will only have to apply once to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) for a certificate and then with consent organisations will be able to use a new online service for an instant check to find out whether the document is still valid.

In a coup for volunteering campaigners, unpaid workers will be able to use the online service free of charge when they apply for different opportunities. For paid employees, there will be a small annual subscription fee. Individuals who require a DBS check, which can take up to 28 days, currently have to re-apply for a certificate every time they change jobs or in some cases move workplace.

The move is part of an overhaul of the criminal checks process by the Government. The service will be managed by the DBS, which launched at the start of the month when the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) merged.

The initiative is part of a first wave of public services to be moved online by the Government by 2015, which will also include the National Apprenticeship Service, tax self-assessment and registering intellectual property. Moving services online is expected to save taxpayers up to £1.2bn by 2015 and up to £1.7bn a year thereafter.

Volunteering England (VE), which led a campaign against charging unpaid workers to use the new online criminal checks system, said making the service free for volunteers would give them a “hugely important boost”.

VE chief executive Justin Davis Smith said: “This is particularly significant when charities and public services are looking to sustain the enthusiasm for volunteering created by the Olympics and Paralympics.”