Frequently Asked Questions

An adverse credit check will tell an employer if a candidate has any CCJs (County Court Judgements), IVAs (Individual Voluntary Arrangements) or declared bankruptcies. The credit check will also check the electoral roll and validate the candidates address and can uncover any 'related aliases' that a candidate may have used previously.

An adverse credit check can be carried out online through our credit checking service. All an employer needs to do to request an adverse credit check is register for our services using the registration form on our website. Requesting an adverse credit check is a quick and simple online process.

The European Union’s Fourth Money Laundering Directive of 2017 means that most organisations must now show solid proof of due diligence around Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Finance risk assessments. Relying on documents provided by the candidate often isn’t enough to satisfy due diligence obligations when it comes to Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks. Documents can be difficult to acquire, record, and can easily be forged.

We use multiple electronic data sources to verify a candidate's identity and to check their involvement in any suspicious activity. Anti-Money Laundering checks screen for Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) and comprehensively scan Sanctions Databases as well as the Electoral Roll to protect the employer, against the risk of hiring someone involved in terrorist funding, fraud or other unlawful financial activity.

A basic DBS check will contain details of convictions and conditional cautions considered to be ‘unspent’ under the terms of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

Our response times can vary dependant on whether the Criminal Records Bureau is experiencing any delays, up to date details on our response times can be found here.

First of all, the person completing the character reference should be able to speak positively about the person who they have been asked to complete a reference for. They should include information about themselves and their relationship to the candidate, along with any other details that may be relevant.

A character reference for a job differs from an employment reference as the person writing the reference should talk about things like a candidate’s character, work ethic and personality rather than professional qualifications.

The person who is asked to complete a character reference should include within the reference:

Their contact details

How long they have known the candidate

What their relationship is with the candidate

Details about the candidates character and relevant examples of their work ethic and personality

A character reference is meant to give an insight into a person’s character rather than their specific work abilities and qualifications. As such, they would usually be provided by teachers, lecturers, mentors, group or club leaders as well as neighbours and family friends.

A directorship check allows potential employers to obtain information on a candidate’s present and past directorships. This can be useful when looking both to validate an application and identify potential conflicts of interest.

A driving licence check code is used to check a candidate’s driving record on the DVLA database. This includes any penalty points and also the vehicle classes that they are permitted to drive.

They can obtain a driving licence check code in the UK from the GOV.UK website - View or share your driving licence information.

An employment reference must be provided by a current or previous employer. The referee must be in a higher position than the candidate, or a HR representative.

An employment reference provides comments about an employee’s job performance. The person who completes an employment reference should include:

Their contact details

Candidate’s Length of employment

Candidate’s position

Candidate’s salary whilst employed

Any other information they would like to supply about the candidate

Facial ID verification uses accurate data extraction, document authenticity checks, liveness detection and biometric face matching to confirm a candidate’s identity.

Gap referencing is where we question a period of time unaccounted for between the candidates employment dates provided.

A right to work check is an undertaking by a potential employer to confirm that a candidate has the correct permission, or the right to work. This must be done to ensure that a candidate is legally allowed to carry out the role.

Documents vary depending on the candidate’s nationality. A full list can be found with the current Home Office documentation guide.

Right to work checks started in 2006 as part of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act. The civil penalty provisions in the 2006 Act do not apply to continuous employment with the same employer that commenced before 29 February 2008, for which a statutory excuse is therefore not required. Under section 15 of the 2006 Act, an employer may be liable for a civil penalty if they employ someone who does not have the right to undertake the work in question if that person commenced employment on or after 29 February 2008.

There are three basic steps to carry out as part of an employer’s right to work check;

Obtain - original versions of ONE or more acceptable documents

Check - the documents validity in the presence of the holder

Copy - make and retain a clear copy and record the date of the check

Up to date details on our response times can be found here.