Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent changes her Department has made to the criminal record checks regime. [104956]

Lynne Featherstone MP; Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State: Following the Government's review of the Vetting and Barring scheme in 2010, and that carried out by the Government's Independent Adviser for Criminality Information Management concerning the Criminal Records Bureau's arrangements, we are implementing a number of changes to the criminal records regime. Most of these changes are to be introduced under the Protection of Freedoms Bill, which is currently before Parliament.

The main changes provided for in this Bill are:

integration of the functions of the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) to form the Disclosure and Barring Service;

scaling back the arrangements determining those who will be subject to a barring check;

provision for a criminal record certificate to be sent only to the applicant, enabling an applicant to challenge information before it is disclosed;

introduction of a provision to allow an applicant to request an independent review of whether information is relevant for disclosure;

introduction of a new updating service to enable a system of online checking, with the consent of the applicant, effectively removing the need for multiple criminal records certificate applications;

the introduction of new statutory guidance governing the disclosure of police information held locally.

Subject to Royal Assent, it is expected that these changes will be implemented between 2012 and 2014.