BPSS Overview

For the UK Right to Work with Digital Identity Verification service, Sterling verifies the candidate’s ability to work in the UK through a digital identity solution. We integrate identity technology seamlessly at the start of the candidate experience, checking the candidate's British and Irish Passport using a combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and expert human review.

Where candidates cannot provide a British or Irish Passport, Sterling will provide the candidate with alternate opportunities to provide their right to work status in the UK, either by providing a share code and checking the UK Home Office Employee Checking Service database or providing options to upload other acceptable documents to prove their right to work.

Criminal Records Check

We work closely with the Disclosure and Barring Service, Disclosure Scotland, Access Northern Ireland, as well as a wealth of global safeguarding authorities to verify the candidate’s criminal history. In the UK we are able to offer all levels of disclosure applications and, based on the candidate’s address history in the last 3 years or more. Sterling can launch a criminal records check, or a best practice equivalent, in almost every country of the world.

Basic Disclosure – A Basic Disclosure is available to any individual applying for or already employed in a position. The Basic Disclosure certificate will contain details of convictions (and conditional cautions in England and Wales) that are considered to be unspent under the terms of the applicable Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (ROA).

Confirmation of 3 Years Employment History/Activity

We compare information on previous positions held, dates of employment, and reasons for leaving, taken directly from source, providing an accurate and thorough picture of the candidate’s employment history.

3 Year Activity and Gap Verification (with gaps of 6 months or more verified) — With Document Collection

We aim to help identify any falsified dates by establishing a timeline for the candidate. This highlights any prolonged gaps in professional or academic history and reveals any instances such as negative employment that the candidate may wish to keep from the employer. The BPSS Standard recommends that any gap periods of 28 days or more in employment history should be investigated. In instances where we are unable to complete the verification after all attempts have been exhausted, then documents will be collected from the candidate to validate the instance of activity.

3 Year Activity and Gap Verification (with gaps of 6 months or more verified) — With Document Collection — Written

In addition to 3 Year Activity and Gap Verification (with gaps of 28 days or more verified) — With Document Collection, Sterling offers a package that will ensure that all verifications are received in writing from the source so that a written audit trail is available along with the background screening report.

Animal Rights Activist

Identifies whether the candidate is a member of animal rights groups, has signed animal rights petitions, or has been in the media associated with animal rights activities.

Animal Rights Activist Plus

Provides an extended search of the candidate and their known close affiliates to identify any association and/or sympathies with single-issue derogatory information (and first degree derogatory association), including animal rights extremism, social, anti-corporate and environmental protest movements, political/ideological extremism, other activism and ‘hacktivism’, criminal disclosure, release of sensitive imagery and/or information unprofessional conduct (‘red flags’), discriminatory conduct, substance abuse, fraud, and susceptibility to blackmail or third-party manipulation.

Passport / National Identity Card Validation

The increasing availability of high-quality, fake documentation makes establishing identity difficult but Sterling’s Passport/National Identity Card Validation search provides secure, fast, and accurate validation of thousands of identity documents from across the globe. This AI-driven solution with expert human support will analyse identity documents against document libraries to detect and compare security features, data points, such as Machine Readable Zone (MRZ), microprint, and text positioning from almost every country in the world to validate the authenticity of the document presented.

This search uses the candidate’s current and previous names to sift through a database collated from more than 12,000 sources including the world’s major trade, business, and scholastic journals, local newspapers, regional business publications, national and international business newspapers, industry newsletters, corporate news releases and newswires worldwide, for any information pertaining to the candidate.

The search is conducted using thousands of adverse key words relating to crime, terror, fraud and other illicit activities. All articles found are reviewed directly with the source to ensure the most accurate and up to date information is considered. By searching breaking news articles, results can include an early warning on pending criminal and civil cases.

We examine all of the information found, comparing names used and other claims of the candidate to discover whether or not there is any derogatory information.

Our social media screening solution proactively identifies risk-creating behaviours (e.g. bigotry, racism, sexism) using publicly available online information, i.e. social media as well as publicly available web content. This search can help reduce exposure to risk with a solution that promotes ethical decision-making and compliance by proactively identifying undesirable behaviours and recognising positive indicators that align with a company’s culture and values.

Our social media search solution can be deployed in nearly every country and works across hundreds of languages.