Background check

What a background check is for

A background check answers a question the role raises. Does this person have the right to work here? Do they hold the licence the job requires? Is there a conviction that is relevant to working with children? Each question calls for a different check, a different source and a different legal basis. A broad “full screening” bundle answers questions nobody asked and collects data you then have to justify keeping.

A reference check is related but separate: it asks former colleagues about past work, while a background check verifies documents and records.

Where the line is

Some checks are mandatory. In the UK you must check that a candidate is allowed to work for you before employing them, and GOV.UK adds that you must not discriminate against anyone because of where they’re from. Keep copies during the employment and for two years after it ends.

Criminal record checks are restricted by role. In England and Wales, the Disclosure and Barring Service issues the checks:

The GOV.UK employer guidance gives healthcare and childcare as examples of roles that can have a more detailed check. Data protection adds a second test: the ICO treats criminal offence data as needing both an Article 6 lawful basis and official authority or a Schedule 1 condition.

Other European countries take different routes to the same limit. In Germany, only the person concerned can apply for a certificate of conduct (Führungszeugnis) under § 30 BZRG, so the employer asks the candidate to produce it. In France, the CNIL allows an employer to ask to see the criminal record extract but not to keep a copy; a yes/no note in the personnel file is enough.

How to decide what to check

Write down, before any check starts, which requirement of the role each check verifies, who will see the result and what happens if something does not match. Run the check at the point where you actually need the answer. A right-to-work check has to happen before employment starts; a criminal record check for an eligible role may sit at the offer stage; checking every candidate at the first screen is rarely proportionate.

Tell the candidate what you are checking and how you will use it, and give them the chance to explain a discrepancy before you draw a conclusion. A job title translated from another language, or two people with the same name, can produce a mismatch that is not a false statement. If you use a screening company, ask which sources it searches and how errors are corrected; the vendor’s service does not make a check lawful by itself. The entry on GDPR in recruiting covers the wider data-protection rules for candidate data.