The objective of the proposed Standards Committee is to provide assurance, through all stages of the CRB process from initial application through interrogation of the criminal records and police intelligence to issue of robust Disclosures, that quality and integrity in service provision is to the very highest standards possible consistent with value.
In that respect, it is intended to perform a parallel role to that of the Audit Committee. It is recognises that, just as the Audit Committee is expected to provide a bulwark against financial and related risks and to institutionalise good practise, the Standards Committee is intended to provide similar defences and reassurance against incorrect or inadequate disclosures.
A key reputational risk facing the Agency is of failure to:
- Identify correctly the records and intelligence relating to a particular application, such that an unsuitable applicant gains inappropriate employment, creating the potential for or actually leading to abuse and scandal.
- Manage the initial application appropriately, with the result hat a "clean" disclosure is given to someone not meriting it, because their true identity is hidden, with correspondingly unacceptable consequences.
- Manage the in-house process properly, with the result that the correct linkages between applicant, their "footprint" in society and their criminal records/intelligence, are not made, with similar potential for "false positives" or "false negatives" and adverse consequences for customer service and the objectives for which the Agency was created.
- Prevent deliberate subversion of the process by those so-minded, through forgery or conspiracy or similar methods, with the intention of providing "clean" disclosures for those who should not have them.
The primary objective of the Standards Committee is to mitigate this risk by encouraging good process control, using management information, audit methodology and risk management techniques to establish standards and eVect improvements in meeting those standards. In doing so, a subsidiary objective-to improve the quality of the customer experience in the areas of disclosure integrity and thus perceived value- should be addressed.