Builders face checks for criminal records

Published: 12 February 2010
by PETER GRUNER

A DEMAND that builders working on council homes in Islington should be checked by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) sparked a row this week.

Until now CRB checks have been made on those working with children, the elderly and vulnerable people, but there are calls to widen the scheme to include everyone who has access to these groups, including building workers.

Many argue that CRB checks are essential for security, but others suggest there is a “national obsession” with background checks, which might lead to innocent people and those with spent convictions being penalised.

The row was sparked by the owner of a former council home, Vicki Leonard, pointing out in a letter to the Tribune that employees of Homes for Islington (HfI) – the council’s housing agency – who have access to people’s homes do not need CRB checks, although there are plans to introduce them.

She said: “I believe this is not putting the safety of tenants and their families first. Schools across the borough now require nearly everyone coming into contact with children to be checked. Those working with vulnerable adults have to be checked. 

“Yet any number of builders, contractors and repair workers are allowed by HfI to have unfettered access to estates and homes.”

GMB union official and Labour councillor Gary Doolan sympathised with this view. He said: “Most council staff, including caretakers, care workers and even dustmen who visit schools, are CRB check­ed.

“If you are going to meet children or vulnerable people in your job then I believe you ought to be checked.”

But Cllr Doolan added that, with CRB checks costing £64, it is the employer rather than the employee who should  pay for them.

Derek Sawyer, chairman of Islington Community Police Safety Board, while accepting a need for checks at schools and youth clubs, thought there was a danger of too many checks. 

“Where will it all end?” he added. “We’ve got to make sure people are safe, but we have also got to make sure we are not creating a society where everyone is checked for everything.”

Dr Brian Potter, chairman of Islington Leaseholders Association, said CRB checks would mean sub-contractors would be better controlled. “We have sub-contractors and sub-sub-contractors doing work for HfI and often we don’t know anything about these people. If a worker has nothing to hide then he or she won’t mind being checked.”

Tim Newark, of Islington TaxPayers’ Alliance, said the checks were all part of the nanny state syndrome. “It seems to me it’s just another level of intrusion,” he said. “We’ve stopped using our common sense, which has always protected us, and now we have all this government intervention.”

Labour councillor Richard Greening, an HfI board member, said he expected the organisation would ultimately introduce CRB checks on all staff working in homes. 

“We can’t insist on it as part of any current contracts, and we obviously can’t ask workmen to stop work while they are checked,” he said. “But from October we will be asking for new contractors to have staff checked.”