Devon & Cornwall Police Vetting Requirements

It is essential we verify your identify, confirm that you live at the address you have stated and have the right to work in the United Kingdom.

You must be a British citizen, an EC/EEA national, a Commonwealth citizen or a foreign national with no restrictions on your stay in the United Kingdom (UK).

You will be required to provide proof at any assessment centre/interview that you have no restrictions on your stay in the UK and must have been a resident in the UK for three years for the role which requires recruitment vetting and five years for a role which requires management vetting prior to submitting the application form (from the time of submitting the application).

Please note foreign nationality is not an automatic bar to recruitment or to granting security vetting clearance. However, if individuals cannot be vetted in line with National Vetting Policy, their application will not be progressed.

The vetting unit require 2 forms of ID to carry out the required checks. One of these must be a photographic form of ID (valid passport or driving licence) the second for must be proof of your current address (this document must be dated within the last 3 months).

The purpose of the residency criteria is to ensure that applicants have a checkable history in the UK, so that meaningful vetting enquiries can be undertaken.

• Non-Police Personnel Vetting (NPPV) – three years
• Recruitment Vetting (RV) – three years
• Management Vetting (MV) – five years

The residency requirements refer to the period immediately before an application is made, and not any other three or five year period, or any other accumulation of time spent in the UK.

• An individual who has moved overseas and severed major ties to the UK (for example, closed bank accounts and sold property) is considered, for the purposes of vetting clearance, to have surrendered their residency in the UK. This would also apply to people who maintain bank accounts purely for the purpose of receiving regular payments, for example, a UK pension.
• An individual travelling overseas on a gap year or similar is considered to be on an extended holiday and has therefore maintained residency in the UK. If the individual stays in one country for longer than 12 months then then they will be required to provide a certificate of good conduct.

If the vetting applicant has been living outside the UK while serving with the armed forces or on government service, they are classed as being resident in the UK.

Reference to members of the armed forces also includes civilian personnel who are accompanying a force as part of a civilian component or equivalent. Where an individual has been overseas as the spouse, partner or dependant of a member of the armed forces posted overseas, it may be possible to obtain the necessary assurance for a checkable history to be established.

The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 does not apply to any police officer posts, including the Special Constabulary, but it does apply to all police staff posts and non-police personnel, in respect of protected cautions and protected convictions only. Applications for a position as a police officer, special constable and police staff (where that member of police staff may be in the evidential chain) are to be rejected in all cases where offences were committed as an adult or juvenile that resulted in a prison sentence (including custodial, suspended or deferred sentence and sentences served at a young offenders’ institution or community home), the applicant is, or has been, a registered sex offender or is subject to a registration requirement in respect of any other convictions.

At the point of entry into the police service, financial checks identify potential vulnerabilities. It is unlikely that clearance will be granted at RV, MV, NPPV level 2 (full) or NPPV level 3, if the subject has: Existing county court judgments outstanding against them.

Bankruptcy - Applicants who have been registered as bankrupt are unlikely to receive clearance until three years after the discharge of the debt. Debt relief orders (DROs) are treated in the same way as a bankruptcy.

Individual voluntary agreement – Where an IVA repayment plan is in place, the vetting unit will require documentation demonstrating regular payments over a number of months before making clearance decisions.

Defaulted payments - Where debt management plans are in place, the vetting unit will require documentation demonstrating that the applicant has maintained regular payments over a number of months before making clearance decisions

A right to work check means that the Force will check a document which is acceptable for showing permission to work in the UK. This must be done before employing a person to ensure that they are legally allowed to do the work. If the person has time-limited permission to work in the UK, a follow up check must be undertaken.

Devon & Cornwall Police have a duty to prevent illegal working by carrying out in-house prescribed document checks on all potential employees and encouraging management to do the same. The Force will prevent illegal working and ensure only the employment of people who have permission to work lawfully in the UK.

For a full list of documents deemed acceptable in determining your right to work in the UK, please visit the gov.uk website.

Devon & Cornwall Police will obtain the original copies; check the validity of the documents presented and make a copy for retention, recording the date the check was made.