Viewing the certificate

At the start of each month, we will contact Recruiters via email to advise them about any certificates which have been issued by AccessNI within the previous month, however, we would also recommend staying in regular contact with the applicant to see if the certificate has arrived.

If the certificate contains no information:

If there is no information to disclose on the certificate, AccessNI will issue a digital certificate to the applicant through their NIDA account.
If the applicant lives in the UK and still wants to receive a paper certificate this can be requested on the application form.
An applicant has the option to share their online certificate with an email address of their choosing from their NIDA account. It should be noted that when an applicant shares a link to their digital certificate, the token will only be available for three days for the recipient to view it. It will then be blocked. Applicants can still reshare their certificate if required.

If the certificate contains information:

If information is disclosed, AccessNI will automatically issue the applicant a paper certificate in the post.

AccessNI only issues a certificate to the applicant. You therefore MUST therefore ask the applicant to show you their copy of the disclosure certificate BEFORE they start work in their role. This is a vital part of the process.

If the certificate 'contains information' and you need help risk assessing this please contact our Safeguarding Helpline on 0303 003 1111 (option 2) to speak to a professional adviser or in the case of an organisational scheme you must speak to your organisation HQ.

Security features

The Recruiter should check the certificate for accuracy (current/previous names, date of birth and address). In thirtyone:eight’ experience, even an error of a single letter in a name has meant the wrong person being checked and conviction information not contained in the certificate sent out by AccessNI.

The paper AccessNI uses for their certificates incorporates several security features aimed at making it difficult to reproduce. These features include:

Grey - Red - Grey “split duct” colouration on the face and reverse that will display the wording ‘NOT AN ORIGINAL’ at regular and repeating intervals if photocopied.
A watermark incorporating the wording ‘DOCUCHECK’.
The wording ‘Access Nothern Ireland’ is imprinted repeatedly and runs vertically along the length of each sheet.

If you are concerned about the authenticity of a certificate you should immediately contact AccessNI.

Record keeping

Once you have seen and verified the certificate you should record the certificate number and date of issue and ensure that this information is kept in a secure place. You could keep this information on a spreadsheet or database.

You may not keep a record of the result of the disclosure but could keep a note of the date they were appointed. In the unlikely event of a future enquiry, it may be necessary for you to provide this
information to thirtyone:eight or AccessNI direct. Once a recruitment decision (or other relevant decision – eg for regulatory or licensing purposes) has been made, a Recruiter must not retain it, or any associated correspondence, for longer than is necessary for the particular purpose. In general, this should be for a maximum of 90 days.