SPS - Schools Personnel Sevice

1.       Why are you increasing the cost of an Enhanced check?
The increase is directly linked to the Government’s decision to scale back the VBS and find an alternative way of funding the Scheme without the income which would have been raised through the £64 fee for registration.
The Government’s decision to increase the fee for an Enhanced CRB check by £8 will fund the retained elements of the Scheme, and is significantly lower than the intended £64 for registration with the Scheme.

2.       What are these retained elements?
The maintenance of the barring lists, barring decision casework, handling referrals from employers and other organisations and automatic barring provisions undertaken by the ISA ;  the associated administrative costs of supporting these services by the CRB in using ISA barring information; the police in information provision to the ISA and Home Office for ongoing policy support. 

3.       What will happen if the increase in the fee does not cover all of these costs by the end of the financial year?
The CRB , nor its customers will be expected to pick up any shortfall. This will be a matter for the Home Office, Department for Education and the Department of Health.

4.       Will there be a further substantial increase in fees to pay for any of the changes as a result of the VBS and criminal record reviews?
As with all government fees and charges, the CRB fees will be subject to regular review. The current fee levels now represent the level necessary to achieve full cost recovery at the present time.

5.       If my check is submitted before 6 April but processed after, what fee will apply?
Any checks accepted by the CRB before 6 April will be processed at the current fee of £36.00.  Any checks submitted after this date will be processed at the new fee of £44.00.
If an incorrect fee is received with the application after 6 April 2011 , then both will be returned to the Registered Body who will have to resubmit the application with the correct fee.

6.       Will the fees rise again next year?
As with all government fees and charges, the CRB fees will be subject to regular review. The current fee levels now represent the level necessary to achieve full cost recovery at the present time and will enable the move from the current criminal records regime to the new, more proportionate system. 

7.       Why have you or the Government not consulted customers on this?
There is no statutory requirement to consult with customers. 
As part of the review process, significant stakeholder consultation was undertaken.  The new system does away with the need for individual applicants to pay £64 to register with the Scheme, as was proposed previously.  Therefore, stakeholders face a smaller bill than the one they were expecting. 

8.       If the main elements of VBS (requirement to register and continuous monitoring) have been scrapped, what will the fee increase be funding?
This will cover the ISA ’s budgeted costs of £17.1m per year – with the remaining money covering the other retained elements of the Scheme and contributing towards the development of the current criminal records regime.
The new fee is however significantly lower than the intended £64 fee for ISA registration.

9.       What are the developments to the current criminal records regime?
The development of the Criminal Records Status check to allow CRB checks to be used more than once.

10.   We have already set our budget for the year before we were aware of any increase; the change is very short notice.
We appreciate that the fee increase will be implemented in a very short timescale and that many of you will have already set your budgets for the forthcoming financial year. The increase to Enhanced CRB checks is considerably less than the intended fee of £64 for registration, which organisations will have accounted for in their 2011/12 budget.

11.   Is the fee increase funding the merger of the ISA and CRB ?
No.