E Conducting Criminal History Checks on Relevant Occupants

When considering HD/CD/RR, criminal history checks should be completed on all relevant occupants, aged 16 years and over, living in the proposed dwelling.

Criminal history checks are completed to:

confirm that the occupants are who they say they are, and
evaluate the suitability of the relevant occupants in relation to
- the possible risk to the offender, and
- the overall appropriateness of the relevant occupant in a setting where the offender is to be detained.

The safety and welfare of every occupant in the proposed curfew address or home detention residence must be considered.

Note: It is inappropriate to assume that the age of a relevant occupant, (i.e. aged 16 years or over), excludes the need for a criminal history check to be completed.

Relevant occupants with criminal records

Having a criminal record does not in itself make a person unsuitable as relevant occupant.

When reviewing the criminal records of any relevant occupants consider the following:

Is the offending similar to the offender's? Will this person provide pro-social support or are they likely to collude with the offender?
Will the safety of the offender or the occupant(s) be at risk due to the type of offending, e.g. domestic violence?

CPPS records

Departmental records (including IOMS and CPPS files) must not be used to obtain information on relevant occupants. The only information that can be sought is via the MoJ criminal history checks.

This is necessary because the Privacy Act provides that information may only be used for the purpose for which it was collected. This means that information collected about an offender for the purpose of managing their sentence/order may only be used for this purpose. It cannot be used for the purpose of informing decisions about another person's sentence or order.

Steps to take

The following table sets out the procedure for conducting criminal history checks.

Step

Action

Probation officers must obtain written permission from each relevant occupant aged 16 years and over to request and obtain the information from MoJ.

To do this, the relevant occupant must fill out the sections on the Request by Third Party for a Copy of an Individual's Criminal History form, available on Corrnet (Priv/F2).

Note: Guidelines on how to complete this form follow this procedure.

If…

then…

an occupant declines to give written permission

note this in the appendix.

permission is given

the probation officer will complete the relevant information and fax the form to:

Privacy Unit
Ministry of Justice
Fax number: 04 918 8974.

The request for the conviction list(s) should be made as soon as possible. The following timeframes have been agreed between the Department of Corrections and MoJ.

Category	Return time
Emergency	1 working day (if received by 10.00AM, otherwise within 24 hrs).
Urgent	3 working days.
Standard	20 working days (mailed back).

Note: A working day is Monday to Friday inclusive, not including public holidays.

For checks on relevant occupants in relation to HD/CD/RR, probation officers should fax the form using either the 'emergency' or 'urgent' category.

MoJ will fax the information back to the originating service centre.

Upon the end of the agreed timeframe, if the information is not provided, follow up with MoJ.

Guidelines

The following are guidelines to complete the Request by Third Party for a Copy of an Individual's Criminal History form.

Section	Guidelines
Section 1: Subjects' Authority to Release Information	ensure the relevant occupant dates and signs this section tick the section "other", specifying in the box below HD/CD/RR tick the "all convictions report" box check if the occupant wishes to receive a copy of the information provided to the third party and indicate (Y/N).
Section 2: Third Party Details	the name of the agency the third party is acting for is the group or service the probation officer represents (e.g. CPPS Wanganui service centre) the full name of the third party is that of the probation officer enter the address, your name, designated position, return fax number and personal signature.
Section 3: Subject's Details Note: In almost all cases this section is completed by the probation officer as occupants rarely have a photocopy of their identification.	ensure the relevant occupant completes all of the "personal details", "previous names" and "current residential address" parts of this section ensure the relevant occupant completes as much of the information as possible in relation to their "postal address" and "previous two residential addresses" under "subject's identification" the probation officer must indicate whether they have sighted the relevant occupant's driver's licence or passport if the relevant occupant does not have an enlarged photocopy of either their driver's licence or passport, the probation officer must fill in all sections of the form labeled Supplement to MoJ Form Priv/F2.
Section 4: Proof of Identity	this section is completed by a person nominated by the relevant occupant to confirm their identity when they do not have a driver's licence or passport conditions around who the nominated person can be are listed under this section on the form.