Frequently Asked Questions

Depending on regulations in your country you can use the certificate for employment or for any other purpose allowed by the law. This could mean running a criminal background check on:
– Job candidate
– Employee
– Vendor
– Nanny
– Tenant …
or more.
If you are a job applicant show your employer that you are proactive by taking out your own ECRIS report.
Find out more.

Criminal records checks can be obtained in a variety of manners:
-Directly from a criminal records bureau of a given country.
-Through the embassy or a consulate of a given country.
-Through the European Criminal Information System, i.e. indirectly, through
a criminal records bureau of a preferred EU member state other than the destined
country. This is how we conduct our CRCs. It’s the fastest solution!

The former are obtained from the state – governed institutions in accordance to the process set forth in relevant legislation of a given country. This is how we do it.

Examples of unofficial access to criminal records may include:
-using services of a company that does not require subject’s written consent
-using a 3rd party provider sourcing information from private databases
-using providers who use personal affiliations in the state offices and
accesses records illegally
-using private investigators, who access criminal records without subject’s
awareness or consent

Examples of official access to criminal records
-Applying directly to the inspectorate in a given country, with subject’s
written consent
-Applying through a service provider who applies to official authorities on
your behalf, just like ECRIS does.

-No written consent of the subject is required (government organization will
always look for one)
-Only basic subject’s personal details are required (as opposed to the official
process where details information is gathered to avoid false positives)
-The report shows very basic information
– The report comes as an internal document of your service provider
-No hard copy original certificate is available.

We are commonly asked by employers from different countries to conduct criminal records checks on their job applicants and employees. However, increasingly we are asked for assistance by private individuals, who wish to carry out a criminal background check on a prospect tenant, nanny or person taking care of an elderly member of the family.

ECRIS is the name of our brand. We named it after the pan-European program that facilitates exchange of information on criminal records among the courts of European Union member states. It is called European Criminal Records Information System and it is a decentralised network of criminal records bureaus of all EU member states.

We are chosen for several reasons:
Primarily, due to our narrow specialisation in CRCs we are picked for our expertise in this field.
Such focus lets us build a user friendly service. Our clients value the simplicity of the application process and the clarity of the reports.
We only do criminal records checks, we’re specialists and it’s all we do. Clients who seek nothing but a CRC trust us more than providers who dilute their focus with numerous services.
ECRIS is chosen by the companies required by their internal policies to conduct legitimate criminal records checks as part of the employee background screening, with focus to consideration of legal compliance.
Finally ECRIS is a choice of clients with previous experience and knowledge in the field of CRCs, who are aware of the consequences of ordering these checks from uncertain sources.

You should definitely use ECRIS if:

Criminal records check is all you are looking for.
You are having difficulties obtaining CRC in your country.
Your provider of employee screening services cannot provide the CRCs from the preferred country.
You want to obtain a CRC in another EU country.
You obtain CRCs on citizens of other EU member states regularly.
Your priority is the authenticity of information guaranteed by the official source it comes from.
Compliance is of the essence.
You value comprehensible and simple application process.

This will depend on the law in your country and the nature of your business. In most cases the ECRIS report will enable to you make a hiring decision based on the integrity and lack of criminal history of your applicant. In every case you should check your local laws before you use this tool of candidate evaluation. Occasionally you may need to obtain an additional consent from the subject, letting you legally use the information from the ECRIS report.

Information is obtained though the Polish National Criminal Register who play a role of a middleman in the flow of documentation. Nevertheless in every case the ultimate source of information is the central register of the destined country.

Section 56 of the Data Protection Act (DPA) introduced in March 2015 criminalises forced subject access requests made under section 7 of this act. As a result employers’ ability to legally obtain information on their job applicants’ criminal records has been narrowed to the cases listed in the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (ROA).

In ECRIS we do not make any requests under section 7 of the DPA, therefore we are not limited by the section 56. If you are not certain whether the position involving a criminal record check is eligible under the ROA or you if had been legally processing criminal records checks before March 2015, it is safer to use our service, as it will leave you compliant with the provisions of the section 56 of the DPA.

Section 4(13) of the Data Protection Act (DPA) introduced in July 2014 criminalises forced subject access requests made under section 4(1) of this act. As a result employers’ ability to legally obtain information on their job applicants’ criminal records has been narrowed to the categories of employment requiring compulsory disclosure of relevant criminal convictions.

In ECRIS we do not make any requests under section 4(1) of the DPA, therefore we are not limited by the section 4(13). If you are not certain whether the position involving a criminal record check requires a compulsory disclosure or if you had been legally processing criminal records checks before July 2014, it is safer to use our service, as it will leave you compliant with the provisions of the section 4(13) of the DPA.