Vetting procedure guidelines
These guidelines have been prepared to help approved organisations understand the vetting process and to assist these organisations develop their own procedures regarding the vetting process.
On this page:
Purpose of Police vetting
The purpose of vetting is to minimise the likelihood of the more vulnerable members of society (children, older people and those with special needs) being put at risk by individuals who may have displayed behaviour that could be detrimental to others' safety and wellbeing.
What is Police vetting?
Vetting, as conducted by the Licensing & Vetting Service Centre, uses two computer-based checks to search for information about an individual.
The first check is a search of convictiions in accordance with the Criminal Records (Clean Slate) Act 2004. A printout is made of conviction history, location of the court, the date of the offence, the offence itself, and the sentence imposed. It should be noted that minor traffic infringements, such as parking tickets, are not shown on these printouts.
The second computer-based check is a search of other information held by Police. This information is used to look for behaviour of a violent or sexual nature that may not, for whatever reason, have resulted in a conviction. In cases where such information exists, further investigation is carried out and the response may be "red stamped" (see Results of vetting).
IMPORTANT: Police vetting is not a complete background check. It should be used only as part of a robust recruiting and screening process, such as that outlined in the publication "Safe Not Sorry" by Anthea Simock from the Institute for Child Protection Studies, PO Box 679, Hamilton, phone 07 838 3370.
The process
Once an organisation has been approved to receive vetting services, Police will provide a copy of the correct "Consent to Disclosure of Information" form. Vetting can only be carried out with the consent of the applicant given on the correct form. Applicants should be told they are to be vetted and offered an explanation of the process.
Note: It remains the responsibility of the organisation to verify the identity of each applicant.
The completed consent forms are then sent by the organisation to the Licensing & Vetting Service Centre for processing.
A date stamp is placed on each request. This stamp indicates that each of the 2 computer checks have been carried out, the date of processing (there may be a short delay between receipt and processing), and the operator who completed the check.
If convictions are present and the subject is ineligible under "Clean Slate" legislation, the printout will be attached to the request. Where there is information indicating violent or sexual behaviour (other than convictions), a "red stamp" may be placed on the request.
All completed vetting requests are then sent back to the organisation for their decision regarding employment.
The results of vetting
The information supplied by Police will be sent directly to a designated person within the requesting organisation. This information is to be securely stored until such a time as it is no longer useful for the purpose it was obtained. The information should be stored in such a way that only those required to access the information are able to do so.
Applicants should be given the opportunity to view any information provided by Police and, in the interest of natural justice, have the opportunity to correct this if necessary. A correction may be sought by writing to:
The Manager
Licensing & Vetting Service Centre
Police National Headquarters
PO Box 3017
WELLINGTON
The decision as to whether an individual is suitable or not for a given position remains with the employer. In making this decision employers might need to consider the following when assessing the results of vetting:
- The nature of the offence and relevance to employment.
- Length of time since the crime was committed.
- Age and maturity now as compared to when the crime was committed, the seriousness of the crime e.g. length of sentence, use of a weapon, the circumstances at the time of violent behaviour.
- Pattern of crime, e.g. a short spate may indicate a "phase" but a regular pattern may indicate continuing inappropriate behaviour.
- The proximity of the person undergoing vetting to the vulnerable person(s). That is, are they likely to have unsupervised access to these vulnerable people?
Where vetting indicates behaviour of a violent or sexual nature (that is not shown on an individuals criminal record printout), Police may recommend that an individual does not have unsupervised access to children, young people, or more vulnerable members of society. This is shown by way of a large red stamp. The individual may wish to know the basis of such a recommendation and, in these cases, should write to the Manager: Licensing and Vetting Service Centre. Police will provide a written response to the individual, detailing the basis for the advice given.
Information supplied by Police must be destroyed once it is no longer useful for employment purposes. Burning or shredding the information ensures secure destruction.
Details of police vetting are not to be disclosed to any staff, other than the individual tasked with handling this information and the subject of the vet.
Police contact: email the Vetting Service
