Capita do NOT run the CRB - the home office do. Capita provide front of house processing of enquiries and paper requests which are then electronically passed to the Home Office staff to process.

Within the Capita Building in Liverpool one floor is rented by the Home Office and that's where their staff sit, they are managed by HO management. Capita staff have little involvement with the HO staff as all the processing is handled electronically. All the forms sent in for disclosures are scanned by Capita staff, The electronic version is then checked for omissions by Capita Staff who may contact an individual to clarify information or request additional documentation. Once Capita are happy that all the info appears correct it goes to the Home Office Staff who conduct the searches and produce the disclosure forms which are printed and enveloped within the Home Office then passed to Capita to despatch.

Within the CRB setup the ground rules have been changed by the HO so many times that staff frequently gave up and walked out - the turnover has been astonishing although it has now settled. The massive backlash about backlogs of disclosure requests where levied at Capita but was actually due to insufficent HO staff at the other end of the process.

Here endeth the lesson!