The Data Protection Act should not be an excuse for firms failing to carry out effective screening of staff, according to the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).

Last week, at an event attended by the Metropolitan Police, SOCA and counter fraud and security network PREFIT, Information Commissioner, Jonathan Bamford, said: “Employers sometimes mistakenly use the Data Protection Act (DPA) as an excuse to not screen staff when they could do. I call that ‘the data protection duck out’.”

David Chernick, chair of PREFIT, says: “All too often, recruiters wrongly cite data privacy, employment and even human rights law as reasons why they can’t screen staff. Thankfully, we now know for sure that employers can screen during recruitment, and again during employees’ tenure, as long they do it in the right way. That’s good to know because when we investigate employee fraud, we find that 87% is perpetrated after the first two years of service.”

Richard Smith, PREFIT’s head of events, added: “We’re delighted that today’s talks attracted such overwhelming interest and support, and that feedback from participants was unanimously positive. In the coming weeks we’ll announce further plans, for example, to tackle more legal issues, temporary and contract worker security, staff criminality and probity.”