Advice for vetting applicants

Before you begin completion of this vetting application you will need to acquire some information to help you provide full responses to the questions.

The Police Vetting process is completed online. At the moment you do not have the facility to save your vetting application and return to it at a later stage, so being able to complete it in one sitting will be a good use of your time.

If the vetting application is not complete it will be returned to you for additional information and this will extend the time taken to notify your employer of the result. You only have 20 days in which to complete the application or the link to the online application will expire.

Things to do before you start your vetting application 

We will ask for names, addresses and dates of birth of your parents, siblings, partner and children over the age of ten years plus any other person over the age of ten years living with you.

It is not unusual for parents to no longer be living together; if that is a result of bereavement please advise us of the date your parent(s) passed away. If it’s as a result of separation/divorce please advise us if they do or do not have new partners and if they do their current partners name and date of birth (where applicable).

Asking people for these details before you begin completing the vetting application will ensure completion in one sitting.

The current version of the vetting application document does not have an ‘address finder’ facility: please provide a full postal address, including house name/number, road, district, postal town and post code.

Equality Act 2010

We are required by law to review our policy and procedures to ensure our vetting decisions do not have an adverse impact on any particular group of people; for that reason we ask you to tell us about your Protected Characteristics, e.g. Gender, Sexual Orientation, Ethnicity, etc.

This information is not considered as part of the vetting process: it is used by Chief Police officers to ensure our systems are fair and transparent. By completing this information you will help us to analyse if our systems and processes are fair.

Finance

You will be asked questions about your finances. These are required so that we can make a risk assessment about your vulnerability to bribery or corruption. Most people carry debt in the form of mortgages, car loans, credit cards, etc. We will not be making an assessment based upon the size of the debt you choose to carry but, your ability to manage that debt.

We will use a credit reference agency to assess how you manage your finances. It is not unusual for us to discover that people have County Court Judgements (CCJ) in their name because the person who is owed the money has lost contact with the debtor.

You may feel it would be a good investment to pay for a credit reference check online – so that you can assess your own finances, before the vetting case officer does.

If you see something on your personal credit rating that you want to address before you submit your vetting application it may reassure the Case Officer that you are managing your finances effectively.

The Vetting Questions

If you find any of the questions ambiguous or you’re unclear about how to answer any of the questions please email [email protected] and ask a Vetting Case Officer to call you so that you can clarify what’s required of you.

Honesty is the best policy

There are only two offences which are an automatic bar to becoming a police officer; having been sentenced to a custodial sentence (including suspended sentences) and being a Registered Sex Offender.

Police officers are unable to claim the protection of the Rehabilitation of offenders Act provisions – all offending must always be disclosed.

Police staff (civilian or non-warranted staff) members are able to claim protections under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act.

Having been the subject of a police investigation or having received a Conviction, Caution or other finding of guilt, (e.g. fixed penalty notice for disorderly conduct) is not an automatic bar to securing Non Police Personnel Vetting (NPPV), but failing to disclose material facts such as these at the earliest opportunity leads us to have concerns about your Honesty & Integrity and that could mean you will fail the vetting process.

When we say Investigation, this includes circumstances where you have been asked questions by a police officer, police staff investigator, PCSO or Special Constable who are investigating an allegation. Their questioning may or may not have led to you being arrested; it may or may not have led to any formal action being taken, but it’s likely to have been recorded by the police so we want you to tell us about it.

If the police have ever been called to an incident and you have been spoken to about that incident, it’s likely that the police have recorded that encounter; we want you to tell us about that incident (no matter how far in your past).

If you have ever subjected to a formal stop check by a police officer or Special Constable or PCSO it’s likely that they have made a record of that encounter and we want you tell us about that experience. 

If you’ve ever been accused of anything – regardless of the outcome or what police officers said at the time – please share the details with us.

All information you share with the Vetting Unit is treated in strict confidence; it is only used for vetting purposes and no one outside of the world of police vetting has access to it.

Associates

We ask you to provide details of your partner, parents, siblings, children (over the age of 10) and anyone living with you (who doesn’t fit these relationships) so that we can assess if their past behaviour could lead to concerns about your vulnerability to corruption or coercion. This includes friends or acquaintances who have come into the conflict with the criminal justice system.

It is your credit to disclose that you disclose what you know about family, friends and associates criminal offending. Because they have a criminal record or are currently under investigation is not an automatic refusal; there are things you can do to reassure us that you are unlikely to be vulnerable to corruption or coercion. E.g. you may not live at the same address (or are in the process of moving out), you may see them infrequently or have no contact.

If you’re honest and open with the vetting case officer (dealing with your vetting application), it maybe that we can allow your vetting to be cleared with reasonable and proportionate conditions – designed to protect you.

More people fail the vetting process because they withheld some information. Withholding material facts will in all likelihood result in your vetting application being refused so don’t be tempted. Don’t take advice from serving police officers, solicitors or friends who have been through the vetting process, they may not understand police vetting. If in doubt please email [email protected] and ask a Vetting Case Officer to call you so that you can have a confidential conversation and clarify what’s required of you.

Warwickshire Police Vetting Unit,
Stratford Police Station | Rother Street | Stratford upon Avon | Warwickshire | CV37 6RD