FEE FREEZE

Fees for criminal record checks have been frozen for the second year running. The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) says it is able to freeze its fees as a result of year-on-year efficiency savings and increasing demand for its service. The CRB commenced operation in 2002. It has issued over 15 million CRB checks and has the capacity to process more than 300,000 checks every month. CRB chief executive Vince Gaskell says: “Throughout 2007–08, we launched new services and made enhancements to our current service bringing real benefits to our customers. All of this has been achieved without the need to increase the fees.”