Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Warwickshire Police holds the contract for the National Contractors Vetting Service. We conduct checks on people who do not work for the Police, but through their work, require access to work with the Police in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Vetting through the National Contractors Vetting Scheme enables unrestricted access to Police premises, Police systems, and secure information.

Warwickshire Police’s core purpose is for National NPPV vetting and any applicants requiring SC or CTC only should not be subjected to NPPV vetting. We work to the College of Policing APP and without a Police requirement we don’t have a valid reason to vet applicants. We do appreciate that you may have Government projects requiring SC and that some projects cross over with Police forces.

Please refer to our advertised Vetting Rates (April 2026), if a quote is still required, please email the vetting unit advising the number of applications you require, the level of clearance, and which service you wish to raise the applications under (standard or premium).

We no longer accommodate PO numbers from 03/06/2024.  Card payment at the point of creation is required. You will now find a basket tab on your portal where you can pay for your applications.

Please review our self service guide to card pre payment for further guidance on this process.

If you are not able to gain access to a company credit card yourself, you are able to add a new portal user who will only have financial responsibilities.  Please have a look at our updated Authorised Portal User Request Form. If you require a new authorised portal user, please email the vetting unit with this request.

We accept Visa, Mastercard Debit/ Credit, and American Express. We are not currently accepting Diners Club, Discover, JCB, or Union Pay. We are also unable to accept CHAPS, BACS, or cheques.

Payment confirmation will be sent to the email address requested on GOV.UK PAY, once successful payment has been made. If this is required, please liaise with the payee user for your organisation.

You can choose to pay for multiple applications in the basket at once, which means you will receive one receipt for multiple applications and they will each have the same payment reference number, or you can pay for applications individually so that you have a receipt per application and each application has its own payment reference number.

We would advise going forward with the option which would work best for yourself, your records, and your finance team.

If you are unsure of the process, please refer to the Self service guide to card pre-payment.

We don't issue VAT invoices as the vetting service provided by Warwickshire Police is considered as “non-business” by HMRC because the service can only be provided by a police body and, as such, is outside the scope of VAT.

As applications are now pre-paid for via GOV.UK Pay, at the time of creation, we are no longer able to generate invoices.

The basket page on the portal shows the applicants name, application type and the associated costs. This replaces the ‘backing documents’ you may have previously requested when invoices were received. If these details are required for your accounting systems, we would recommend saving the data in a format which suits you to reconcile against the receipt generated by GOV.UK Pay. As GOV.UK Pay is a separate system, I’m afraid we have no control over the format of the receipt.

You can choose to pay for multiple applications in the basket at once, which means you will receive one receipt for multiple applications and they will each have the same payment reference number, or you can pay for applications individually so that you have a receipt per application and each application has its own payment reference number.

A payment receipt is sent to the requested email address once payment has been made via GOV.UK Pay. This can be matched to the details you previously saved. The receipt shows the total payment that has been made to Warwickshire Police Vetting Service for a web application.

The minimum age for clearance is 16. The applicant must have an NI number to submit them for clearance; this is generated at age 16. Usually, under 18s are only permitted to work under work placement or apprenticeship in which case the applicant would require right to work checks during your usual onboarding process.

Best practice would be to consider your applicants residency during your onboarding process.

Your applicant will need to have been a resident in the UK for a minimum of 3 years, for NPPV, and 5 years, for NPPV+SC, prior to applying for clearance.

If your applicant does not meet the residency criteria, their application will be rejected during the quality checking stage and they will be advised to submit a residency appeal for review if they meet the grounds for appeal.

The grounds for appeal are, 

• Having spent around 12 months overseas without returning to the UK
• Serving with the armed forces or on HMG government service

The appeals are reviewed by the vetting manager on a monthly basis and your applicant will be notified of the outcome via email.

BPSS checks must be completed by your organisation during your onboarding process, these comprise of verifications of the applicants (i) Identity, (ii) Employment/Academic history for (as a minimum) 12 months, (iii) Nationality/Immigration status (including right to work in the UK), (iv) Criminal record check. 

Warwickshire Police only complete the criminal record check as part of the vetting process.

DBS checks do not form part of the NPPV vetting process. If required, these checks must be completed by your organisation during your on-boarding process.

An applicant’s NPPV clearance can be transferred to your organisation if it was completed by Warwickshire Police, also subject to a request being received within 6 months of their leaving date from their previous employer/ sponsor. To request the transfer, please complete the NPPV transfer request form with your applicant and email the vetting unit with your request.

Applicants have 45 days to complete their application form.  (90 days if the application was submitted prior to 1st April 2026).  Authorised portal users no longer have the reset expiry function on their portal; therefore, it is important that you ensure your applicants complete their application forms within their 45 day time frame. 

The webform will automatically expire after 45 days, requiring a new application to be raised and paid for.  We are unable to issue refunds for expired applications.  Refunds requested prior to the expiry date will be eligible for a partial refund, as outlined in our pricing structure.  To request a refund, please follow Guidance Notes - Refund Request. 

The case officer will notify you via email of the decline, but you will not be provided with the reasons due to GDPR. Your applicant will receive an email with the vetting decision and, where appropriate, the reason for decline.

We would encourage you to engage with your applicant for the next steps, however this is a private matter and they may not wish to provide you with the detail, only of whether they choose to submit an appeal.

Should they submit an appeal, it is expected they will update you on the date they submitted this and the date the appeal will be heard. You will receive a further email from the case officer with the appeal panel decision, again, details will not be provided to you. All appeal decisions are final.

Under the web applications tab the statuses can change from Pending to Completed to Expired.

• Pending = with your applicant.
• Completed = with us to quality check and either reject for further information or import, the email you receive does state this.
• Expired = your applicant did not complete their application within the allocated timeframe.  You will need to resubmit and pay for a new application.  Unfortunately, you will no longer be eligible for a refund.

Applications can move from pending, to completed multiple times.  If you are seeing this consistently with the same applicant, please direct them to our advice for vetting applicants tile, where they will find lots of useful guidance, video guides, and responses to FAQs, to help them complete their application.

We are pleased to share that after ongoing efforts to improve our SLA performance, we are now processing all new applications within our published SLAs (subject to third party checks).  All published SLAs relate to the NPPV element only.  Please refer to our Vetting Rates (April 2026) to see our SLAs for both the standard and premium service.  

We are still unable to provide a progress update on any applications prior to their SLA for both standard and premium applications.

We are unable to send emails advising when an application is cleared, so we recommend you monitor your portal for applicants that have moved to the clearances tab. 

Only authorised portal users have access to the portal.  Password sharing is strictly prohibited, and if this becomes apparent, accounts may be deleted.  If you require to be set up as an authorised portal user, please see above.  The link to the portal is WPC Core-Vet Portal (corevetconnect.co.uk)  If you have forgotten your password, or are experiencing difficulties on the portal, please email the vetting unit.

Payment links are valid for approximately 1 hour. Please only proceed to payment through the basket when the cardholder is available to complete the transaction.

Once expired, navigate to the ‘Payment in Progress’ tab, select ‘Go to Payment’ and cancel the transaction. You will be diverted back to the portal, and the applicant should then be visible again in the Basket. Once you are ready to make a payment, follow the checkout process again.

If GOV.UK Pay is closed before you are redirected to Corevet, the application can get stuck in the background.

To dislodge the application, please click in and out of the basket page and other tabs on your portal a few times and allow some time for the application to appear under your web forms tab. If the application has not been dislodged by the following day, please email the vetting unit and we will look into this further.

All organisations are set to 10 applications per month. If your requirements will exceed 10, we will require you to complete our Forecast Form 2026-2027.

Once this has been received, it will be taken to the management team for review, and limits will be discussed with you shortly afterward. Please send your completed forecast form to [email protected]. 

Within its vetting process Warwickshire Police recognises it’s legal obligations under the Equalities Act 2010 and the Gender Recognitions Act 2004 - with particular attention paid to section 22 (GRA 2004) regarding disclosure of Protected Information.

Additionally, Warwickshire Police acknowledges the government guidelines and requirements to secure ‘Protected Information’ (whether it is communicated verbally, materially or held electronically) as required under UK law.

Any disclosed information is managed by these protocols and is not disclosable to any other parties without explicit, written permission from the owner of the Protected Information.

Warwickshire Police acknowledges it’s legitimate aim for requesting Gender History disclosure and it’s legal obligations under these requirements.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding disclosure of information about your Gender history, please email the vetting unit. 

All communications will be treated in strict confidence, Protected Information will be shared with only those vetting staff who absolutely need to know and only used for the purpose of vetting.

We are unable to supply a copy of the application form to company sponsors as this contains personal information. We will only provide a copy to the applicant directly upon request. If required, please advise your applicant to email the vetting unit. Applicants can download and/ or print a copy of their application PRIOR to submitting this on the portal.

If you have not yet generated the application, this is available to select from the application drop-down menu on the portal. (Please select the required NPPV level with the prefix of PREMIUM.)

If you have already generated an application but your applicant has not yet completed their application, you will need to wait until the application is showing under your ‘in progress’ tab.

If the applicant has completed their application and it is showing under your ‘in progress’ tab, please email the vetting unit providing the applicants full name and an identifier such as DOB and/ or NI number. We will contact you with the next steps.

Guidance notes on how to request a refund can be found in Guidance Notes - Refund Request.

A guide of what constitutes a change of circumstances and how to generate a change of circumstances form on behalf of your applicant, can be found in Guidance Notes - Change of Circumstances. 

You will find guidance on how to generate a change of circumstances form on behalf of your applicant in the Self-Service Guide.  

Applicants and Security officers/vetting points of contact

Any person who holds Police Vetting and/or National Security Vetting should be aware of their responsibilities to safeguard and maintain their vetting clearance. 

This includes being security vigilant regarding yourself, your family, and your property when visiting places outside of the UK, and to report incidents of a suspicious nature to your security officer/vetting point of contact on your return to the UK.

An example of this could be, but not limited to:

• An unknown person taking an interest in your job, role, and/or your level of vetting clearance. 
• Being alert to information being taken/given, or anything that could make you vulnerable to coercion.
• Having property, such as your phone, ID, or laptop stolen or reported lost.
• Being offered inducements by unknown persons for no apparent reason.
• Any other suspicious activity that may be linked to your level of vetting clearance or could make you vulnerable to improper influence.

Security officers/vetting points of contact

Please conduct a brief with all applicants prior to travel.

In the event of any of the above being reported to you, please notify [email protected] with the:

• Applicant’s details.
• The duration of travel.
• Purpose of travel - *work, pleasure, or both.
• Location/list of countries visited.
• Details of the event/concerns.

A vetting Case Officer will be in touch in due course.

Vetting unit does not need to routinely be made aware of travel plans unless any of the above has raised concern. 

*Working on Police projects with the NPPV whilst overseas is not permitted.

If the applicant is taking a sabbatical, not exceeding 12 months, clearance may be suspended. Please email the vetting unit so we can advise accordingly.

Please generate a Change of Circumstances form via your portal prior to and upon return of your applicant, we may be able to suspend the clearance, not exceeding 12 months. (Self-service guide to Core-Vet).

Renewing a clearance is actioned in the same manner as a new application, please generate a new application via the portal. 

We recommend you submitting this 8-12 weeks ahead of their current clearance expiry date. For further guidance, please refer to the Self-Service Guide.

An SC/ CTC upgrade can only be requested if the applicant holds an existing NPPV clearance (NPPV2 Full for CTC, NPPV3 for SC) with Warwickshire Police, sponsored by your organisation.  The cost of a CTC upgrade is £207. 

The cost of an SC upgrade is £270.  SC/ CTC upgrades are not currently available to request via the portal.  Please email the vetting unit providing the applicants full name and an identifier, such as DOB and/ or NI number.  We will contact you with the next steps. 

An SC/ CTC share or transfer can only be requested if the applicant holds an existing NPPV clearance (NPPV2 Full for CTC, NPPV3 for SC) with Warwickshire Police, sponsored by your organisation.  The cost of a CTC share or transfer is £207.  The cost of an SC share or transfer is £270.  SC/ CTC shares and transfers are not currently available to request via the portal.  If required, please complete SC Transfer or Share Request Form with your applicant and email the vetting unit with your request.  We will contact you with the next steps.

If there is less than two years left to run on the clearance, we would normally recommend requesting an SC/ CTC upgrade rather than requesting a share or transfer.  

Guidance notes on how to request an ID card can be found in Guidance Notes - ID Card Request.

You can contact the vetting client support team,

By email: [email protected] (we aim to respond to all emails within 3 working days of receipt)

By phone: 01789 444720 (calls are answered Mon-Fri, between 9:00 and 13:00 and 14:00 and 16:00)

Our system imports names exactly as the applicant has completed this on their application, whether that be incorrectly spelt, missing any part of their name or input the incorrect way round. We do not request their ID and it is the responsibility of the applicant to double check their application before submitting this to us.

We would also encourage you to quality check your portal and should you notice any errors, please contact the vetting unit with their FULL name, correctly spelt and confirmation you have seen their ID documents.

Please email the vetting unit providing the applicants full name and an identifier such as DOB and/ or NI number and we will make the necessary adjustment to our system.

At present, you do not need to continue submitting applicants for review unless you have a specific reason to believe their vetting should be reassessed. Our reviews process will be changing soon, and we will share further information once available.

If you require a new authorised portal user to be set up or removed from our system, please complete and Authorised Portal User Request Form and email the vetting unit with your request. Requests will only be actioned upon receipt from an existing authorised portal user. 

We recommend a minimum of two people have access to the portal.  Please notify us when an authorised portal user is leaving so that we can ensure our system is up to date.

Payee access only enables access to the 'basket' tab.  They will not see 'web forms', 'vetting in progress', or 'clearances'.  They only have financial responsibilities which start from page 5 of the self-service guide to card pre-payment.

To facilitate an organisation name change, you will need to email the vetting unit with the below information on your company letterhead. 

Please provide the following:

• Current organisation name 
• New organisation name 
• Date the changes came into effect 
• Company registration number 
• Registered address 
• Correspondence address 
• Contact telephone number 
• Invoice email address (may not be applicable to your organisation) 

Please also review your current authorised portal users and submit the Authorised Portal User Request Form with the letterhead if you wish to add or remove any users. 

We are using a dynamic approach to review and manage the demand for our service against our SLAs, with the aim to significantly improve our service by the end of the financial year.

All organisations are set to 10 applications per month. If you believe your requirements will exceed 10, we will require you to complete our Forecast Form 2026-2027.

Once this has been received, it will be taken to the management team for review, and limits will be discussed with you shortly afterward. Please send your completed forecast form to [email protected].