Criminal records checks will continue to be free for volunteers, the government has confirmed today.
The Home Office has backed away from the prospect of charging volunteers a fee if they need to update their records online to take account of any changes in their circumstances.
Volunteering bodies had campaigned hard against the proposal, fearing it would put people off volunteering at all or incentivise them to simply have a new criminal records check each time they started a new voluntary role, as new checks will be free.
Volunteering England has repeatedly argued that all DBS checks – as CRB checks will be called from spring 2013 - should be free for volunteers. Today Home Secretary Theresa May agreed.
The new ‘Update Service’ due to go live next spring means that once a volunteer has a DBS check they should not need to undergo a new check every time they start a new volunteering opportunity. Instead, the system will allow an organisation to check online to see whether the volunteer’s circumstances have changed since their first check.
This new ‘portability’ has been hailed as a great step forward by volunteering bodies because the need for repeated checks has been a major source of complaints from people wanting to volunteer since CRB checks were introduced in 2002. But the prospect of the government charging a fee for using the updating system had threatened to mitigate much of the benefit.
In 2011, volunteering bodies sent two letters to the Home Secretary asking her to clearly outline the plans for the new updating system for criminal records checks. Last month they sent another letter inviting her to commit to a free checking system.
Justin Davis Smith, chief executive of Volunteering England, said Theresa May had given “a hugely important boost to volunteering by reducing the red tape that gets in the way when people want to give their time to help others”.
“DBS checks being free to volunteers is a key principle we have campaigned to protect,” he said. “We are delighted and relieved that the Home Secretary has listened to the concerns raised by volunteer-involving organisations by ensuring all aspects of DBS checks remain free to volunteers.
“This is particularly significant when charities and public services are looking to sustain the enthusiasm for volunteering created by the Olympics and Paralympics.”
