CARE HOMES, children's nurseries and taxi firms across Yorkshire are being hit by a huge increase in the cost of criminal record checks, the Federation of Small Business (FSB) has warned.

Charges for criminal record checks of employees - a legal requirement for businesses where staff work with children or "vulnerable" adults - have more than doubled from the start of this month.

The FSB, which represents 12,500 member businesses across the region, deplores the fact that the fee for checks carried out by the Liverpool-based Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) has increased from £12 to £29.

Since April last year people working for businesses which fall into the category have had to provide proof that they have no criminal record. This proof is usually purchased by the employer through the CRB in Liverpool which is operated by Capita Group plc for the Home Office.

Existing care home staff were due to have had the checks by April this year, but these were delayed because of a lack of capacity at the CRB. They now have to go through the process by June next year under the new higher charging regime. Peter Pybus, chairman of the Yorkshire Dales branch of the FSB, said: "We deplore this huge increase which will collectively cost those small businesses across the region which have to comply a significant sum. But what is really galling is that this increase follows the CRB, missing seven out of eight of its performance targets in 2002 for which it was fined £2 million for service failures."

He claimed that rather than giving a commitment to improve its services, the CRB was slackening its targets following the fee increase with turnaround times doubling to two weeks for standard disclosures and increasing to four weeks for an enhanced check.

Mr Pybus said: "The CRB failed at the outset to understand how people would apply for criminal record checks and completely misjudged the capacity that it would need."

Updated: 10:07 Wednesday, July 09, 2003