Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
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.
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.
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.
The residency criteria is available on residency appeal form. Best practice would be to consider this during the interview and onboarding stage. If they do not meet the criteria, please refrain from submitting an application. We advise submitting a residency appeal prior to generating an application if the applicant feels they have grounds for appeal. The appeals are heard every month and you will be notified of the outcome and if a full application can be generated.
The College of Policing publish a Vetting Authorised Professional Practice (APP) which requires applicants to have lived in the UK for a minimum of 3 years (for NPPV) and 5 years (for SC) prior to their vetting application.
Your applicant may appeal the decision to the Force Vetting Manager. Please advise them to email the vetting unit with their completed residency appeal form, providing full details, including dates they were out of the UK, the location and the reason why they were there.
The grounds for appeal are:
- You were living outside the UK while serving with the British Armed Forces
- You employed on HM Government service.
- You have been on a Gap Year (not exceeding 12 months)
- You have been employed by a UK registered Company and been on sabbatical (not exceeding 12 months)
- Spent not more than 12 months outside of the UK caring for dependent family members.
- You did not sever UK links while you were working outside of the UK and you are no more than 9 months outside of the Residency Criteria
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 new-rates-for-vetting-as-of-1st-april-2024.pdf (warwickshire.police.uk), if a quote is still required, please email the vetting unit
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 (for NPPV) and 12 months (for SC) of their leaving date from their previous employer/ sponsor. To request the transfer, please complete the transfer request form with your applicant and email the vetting unit with your request.
We no longer accommodate PO numbers from 03/06/2024. This was communicated via our newsletter in December and May. Invoices are no longer available as an option, payment at the point of creation is required. This doesn’t necessarily mean a card payment per application you generate, rather a “add to basket” function, then one payment can be made for multiple 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.
Please liaise with your finance/ procurement department to discuss arrangements that can be put in place.
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.
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 90 day expiry date. 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.
Applicants have 90 days to complete their application form. 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 90 day time frame. The webform will automatically expire after 90 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 refund request guidance notes.
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 if an applicant requests this directly from us, please refer them to the contact us page (Insert link to Contact Us). Applicants can download/print a copy of their application PRIOR to submitting this on the portal.
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 2024) 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. For further guidance, please refer to the Self-Service Guide.
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.
If you require a new authorised portal user to be set up or removed from our system, please complete 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.
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
It was agreed from 1st October 2024, we would limit the number of applications we accept each month. Once this ceiling has been reached, you will be unable to raise any further applications until it resets on the 1st day of the following month.
If you feel you have an urgent operational need which cannot wait until the 1st of the next calendar month, please complete, the Urgent Operational Need Request Form and email the vetting unit with your request.
If your organisation has changed name, this will need to be amended on our system.
Please email the vetting unit providing a letterhead which shows your organisation name, new email address, any new telephone numbers and a list of portal users that require access and those that need portal access to be removed if applicable.
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 5 applications per month. If you believe your requirements will exceed 5, we will require you to complete our forecast form.
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].
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. If this is a bulk request, please export a spreadsheet from your portal and submit this to us, where possible, adding the applicants DOB and/ or NI number to the spreadsheet. Please note, bulk requests will have a longer response time than normal for completion.
A guide of what constitutes a change of circumstances can be found in Guidance Notes - Change of Personal Circumstances.
You will find guidance on how to raise a change of circumstances form on behalf of your applicant in the Self-Service Guide.
If the employee is taking a sabbatical for up to 6 months, but not exceeding 12 months, clearance may be suspended, please contact us to request this (Insert link to Contact Us).
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 for CTC, NPPV3 for SC) with Warwickshire Police, sponsored by your organisation. The cost of a CTC upgrade is £60. The cost of an SC upgrade is £60 + £90 for the remaining years on the NPPV clearance. Please have a look at costs-calculator---1st-april-2024.pdf (warwickshire.police.uk) for clarity on our pricing structure. 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.
In order for an SC to be held, an NPPV3 clearance must be in place first. Once the NPPV3 has been granted and appears on your portal under the ‘clearances’ tab, we can request a transfer of the SC clearance to Warwickshire Police, dependent upon the length of time left to run on the clearance.
If there is less than two years left to run on the SC, we would normally advise that a new application is raised rather than applying for the transfer. The cost of the SC transfer is £60 + £90 for the remaining years on the NPPV clearance. We would ask that, once the NPPV appears on your portal, you complete the SC Transfer or Share Request Form with your applicant and email the vetting unit with your request.
Everything you need to know in relation to requesting an ID card is available in the Guidance Notes - ID Card request document.