Please be ready with your application reference number starting with 'P'. For example P1234567
Many organisations and employers today owe lots of safe practices in their spaces to them adopting the Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check to their internal recruitment policies. It is a nationally coordinated criminal history check that can provide valid records of the candidate's dealings under Australian laws.
Among the various background checks in Australia, the Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check (NCCHC) remains the foremost Check to evaluate how suitable a candidate/employee is for a role/license. The NCCHC remains popular across the Australian Capital Territory and even outside the Territory in all of Australia. However, the NCCHC may go by a different name depending on the State or Territory. Some of the most popular names of the NCCHC includes;
A nationally coordinated criminal history check can be obtained online via the Australian National Character Check (ANCC) website. Most checks are dispatched to applicants within 24 to 48 hours, with the remainder that get referred for manual processing taking longer.
The NCCHC is a standard document; it reveals the same information about the applicant regardless of the State or Territory where it is issued. For example, if a candidate in Tasmania applies for the NCCHC, Australia.
The details in an NCCHC certificate are from the national Australian criminal database, and it contains all the releasable criminal history of the person.
The Australian legislation excludes certain convictions from being disclosed on the NCCHC result. While such records may remain on the Criminal database, they are out of the candidate’s disclosable records in Australia.
All conviction records that the jurisdiction laws allow to be disclosed are the Disclosable Court Outcomes (DCOs). The DCO of a person is usually the unspent convictions or those committed to other forms of sentencing.
The details of a DCO includes the following;
All your convictions history in all Australian courts will appear on the NCCHC certificate. The only time such records do not show is if they qualify for the Spent convictions scheme. Also, the conviction record will no longer appear if the offending law is decriminalised.
“Convictions” in Australia contains different sentences and verdicts the court gives you for the following offences, some of them include;
In most cases, ongoing court hearings are not left out of the NCCHC certificate. The court includes the pending charges, especially where they consider it relevant for future references of the candidate.
Usually, the court includes a pending criminal charge after an advanced hearing of the matter in the court. When pending charges are included in the NCCHC certificate, they are recorded as "pending charges" of the individual.
The NCCHC will contain the history of the candidate's sentence suspension for the bond duration. After the bond period, such records never appear on the NCCHC result.
The NCCHC contains details of all the times the candidate was found guilty under Australian law. It is for cases where the court finds you guilty without giving a conviction.
However, it will appear on the NCCHC as a finding of guilt record in Australia.
Warrants are very popular, especially where the law needs to bring a person before a justice. An arrest warrant for a criminal offence is similar to an offence in Australia, and it may appear on your NCCHC certificate that the candidate has an arrest warrant against them.
No, your overseas convictions neither make your criminal records in Australia nor do they enter the NCCHC records if the Australian legal system was not involved. Your records in Australia only include the convictions issued to you by an Australian court and under the laws of Australia.
Furthermore, an organisation or employer who requests details of your overseas conviction must seek them from other sources.
Convictions given by associations outside the Australian laws or in non-Australian courts are not part of your criminal records.
For example, if a religious body suspends you from the congregation, it will not count as your violations in Australia. It is the same thing if a professional body finds you guilty of an offence without charging you to court.
Not all violations in Australia will end up in your criminal records unless you are prosecuted before a legal Australian court.
Offenders may wonder just how the Spent Convictions will help their prospects and reduce the mitigating effects of a criminal record. With the Spent convictions scheme, they can have their eligible offences removed from their records in Australia.
Once any of your offences become Spent, they no longer appear on the criminal records, and by default, they are no longer part of the Disclosable records on your NCCHC.
One of the many benefits of Spent convictions in Australia is that such offences will no longer be disclosed on a criminal history check.
Applying for the Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check is no longer as tedious as it used to be with the traditional methods. In addition to applying through a State or Territory Police Force and at the Post Office, candidates can now apply online through approved service providers like ANCC.
Through online portals and forms, the candidate can complete their NCCHC within 15 minutes of starting an application. The applicant can complete their application using any internet-connected mobile device, including; a Tablet, P.C., or mobile device.
There are simple steps to complete the NCCHC online when you apply through the Australian National Character Check.
If you want the hard copy, the issuing agency will forward it to your submitted postal address.
The AFP issues valid NCCHC results to the applicants with a successful application. However, candidates may need to provide paper-based application forms.
Applying through the Local Police office generally takes around 10 to 15 days before candidates get the result of their application.
The Post office transfers between various destinations each day; this makes it suitable for candidates applying for the Police Check. The applicant can send the completed Informed Consent Form with the required I.D. to the NPCS through the Local Post office.
NCCHC applications through the Local Post office generally take 5 to15 days before the applicant gets their NCCHC result.
The NCCHC is useful in almost all sectors in Australia, either as the holder or the requesting party. It is a standard document for evaluating the “suitability” of a candidate for a role or license the candidate applies for. The NCCHC is required in;
Most employers include the NCCHC as a requirement before hiring the candidate for the role. For some instances, the employer may even request additional background checks together with the NCCHC in the ACT.
Also, the NCCHC result reveals conviction records that are relevant to the role the applicant is seeking.
For example, an NCCHC for Employment will contain offences that show the candidate's past convictions related to corporate organisations. These are usually the kind of records the employers are typically interested in before hiring a candidate.
All potential or current volunteers may need to provide a current NCCHC for evaluation, primarily if they operate in the vulnerable sector.
For example, it is a potential disaster for an organisation to employ a candidate with a current history of sexually related offences into a sensitive not for profit role.
You may need to apply for the NCCHC for the following roles either as a volunteer or Paid employee;
It is important to note that workers in regulated industries in the ACT are also mandated to hold a working with vulnerable people registration.
The process for obtaining specific licenses in Australia means that the candidate may have to provide an NCCHC as part of the licensing requirement. In a public vehicle driver license application, the agency may primarily evaluate the applicant's public behaviours or assault criminal records in the ACT.
The Licensing agency can deny the applicant if they find offences that will compromise the license they grant to the individual.
Many professional bodies will request your past criminal records such as a personal probity check before they admit you into their organisation. Professional bodies or societies are usually careful when accepting candidates into their organisations. Usually, they will prefer candidates who have clean criminal records, especially regarding offences that affect the organisation's credibility.
Most applicants are usually concerned about how long their NCCHC result will last before the details become obsolete. Typically, the NCCHC does not expire, but the results can become obsolete if the candidate fails to renew the Check.
Although the NCCHC may not expire as they are a ‘point in time check’, the requesting party can set a threshold depending on their internal policies. Most employers or agencies do not accept NCCHC results older than three (3) months, especially for sensitive roles. However, the requesting party must specify any requirement about their NCCHC at the applications stage.
Individuals
If you are an individual, you can obtain a national criminal record check certificate online via Australian National Character Check’s police check application form. The results are dispatched via email.
Business and Enterprise Customers
Business and Enterprise customers are able to sign up to ANCC’s business portal where they can order, manage, track and view candidates’ police check results on their business portal.
Organisations will undergo a process of approval prior to being granted access to ANCC’s business portal for the purpose of criminal history checks.
ANCC sends an invite to the applicant to complete their background check online and handles the application and informed consent form. Contact ANCC’s business and enterprise partnerships team today to enquire about setting up a business portal for your organisation.
Top