Innocent people dubbed criminals
Discussion
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3630971.stm
Innocent people dubbed criminals
Nearly 200 people have been wrongly accused by the Criminal Records Bureau of having criminal records. The names of 193 people were mistakenly linked with convictions held on the police national computer, BBC Radio Five Live has learned.
In some cases the names of those being vetted by the bureau were similar or identical to those of actual criminals.
In others, the criminals had given someone else's personal details to the authorities to avoid a police record.
The Home Office said the bureau processed more than 2.5m checks last year and the errors represent a small percentage of its work.
The Liverpool-based agency came into operation in March 2002.
It was planned as a "one-stop shop" to give employers details about an individual's convictions and cautions, as well as intelligence on them gathered by police.
But the service was beset from the start by problems and delays. For instance, hundreds of pupils had the start of their school term in September 2002 put back because it had failed to provide certificates for teachers.
Earlier this month, it emerged that the cost of vetting people working with children had soared £150m over the estimate by Capita, the private firm carrying out the work.
Innocent people dubbed criminals
Nearly 200 people have been wrongly accused by the Criminal Records Bureau of having criminal records. The names of 193 people were mistakenly linked with convictions held on the police national computer, BBC Radio Five Live has learned.
In some cases the names of those being vetted by the bureau were similar or identical to those of actual criminals.
In others, the criminals had given someone else's personal details to the authorities to avoid a police record.
The Home Office said the bureau processed more than 2.5m checks last year and the errors represent a small percentage of its work.
The Liverpool-based agency came into operation in March 2002.
It was planned as a "one-stop shop" to give employers details about an individual's convictions and cautions, as well as intelligence on them gathered by police.
But the service was beset from the start by problems and delays. For instance, hundreds of pupils had the start of their school term in September 2002 put back because it had failed to provide certificates for teachers.
Earlier this month, it emerged that the cost of vetting people working with children had soared £150m over the estimate by Capita, the private firm carrying out the work.
ker!FastShow said:
And they want to bring in compulsory ID cards that would contain this sort of data on everyone and would affect every single aspect of our lives?
umm....they already have the info. It's not going to affect it, you having a card with a link to the information. Just means they can make the wrong decision quicker.
200 innocent people now have crim records.....what worrys me is the number of inocent people staying at HM's pleasure!
is it possible that maybe someone on here, say, could be a victim of this "mistake" or would it only apply to persons who may have applied for a certain job that requires these checks?
basically what I am asking is could I be a victim of this mistake? and if so how would I go about checking?
(worried!)
basically what I am asking is could I be a victim of this mistake? and if so how would I go about checking?
(worried!)
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