Police Check FAQ

A nationally coordinated criminal history check, also known as 'police check' is a collation of police and conviction history information about an individual that has been determined releasable by Australia’s police agencies.

Information that may be disclosed on an applicant’s police check result may include:

• Court convictions, including penalties and sentences
• Court appearances
• Charges
• Findings of guilt with no conviction
• Good behaviour bonds or other Court orders
• Matters awaiting Court hearings
• Traffic offences

A volunteer police check is a police check in support of a volunteer position or role.

Identifying a police check as ‘volunteer’ only determines the price billed – it will not alter the outcome of the police check result.

A volunteer police check must only be requested to us if:

• The applicant will:

  • freely hold the position or perform the role on a voluntary basis and
  • not be an employee or contractor and will not be entitled to a salary or any other entitlements associated with the position or role, other than payment of out of pocket expenses or
• the applicant is a student undertaking a compulsory vocational placement as a requirement of an Australian-based academic institution or training course.

An Australian police check shows Disclosable Court Outcomes (DCO). These include, but are not limited to:

• Any charge found proven in court.
• Details of the court that heard the charge, the date and any penalty or sentence.
• Findings of guilty by a court, even if no conviction is recorded.
• Court convictions, even if no sentence or penalty was given.
• Good behaviour bonds and similar court orders.
• Charges laid by police but not yet proven, or otherwise, in court.
• Current investigations in which the subject is a suspect.
• Children’s Court convictions and guilty findings.
• Traffic convictions and guilty findings.
• On-the-spot fines issued by police that ended up in court.

There is no standard timeframe for which the results of a police check are valid.

A police check is considered a ‘point in time’ check only. Therefore, the results only reflect police records on the date and time the result is released. It is up to the organisation that requires the police check to determine the timeframe acceptable for a police check result to be valid, based on their own risk assessment or operational requirements.

ACIC requires you to provide 4 documents from 3 categories, as below:

• ONE Commencement of ID Document
• ONE Primary Use in the Community Document
• TWO Secondary Use in the Community Documents

An identity document must only be used once and you must supply all four required documents from the three mandatory categories.

The combination of the identity documents collected must contain the applicant’s:

• full name;
• date of birth; and
• photograph.

In all instances, the combination of identity documents must contain at minimum your full name, date of birth and a photograph.

If you have provided identity documents using a former name, such as a maiden name, you must provide evidence of the name change in addition to the four identity documents.

The nature of the documents in each of the categories is summarised below.

Commencement of ID

ONE (1) is required

• Australian Birth Certificate or authorised record of birth (not an extract or birth card);
• Immigration record or document, including:

  • an Australian Citizenship Certificate;
  • an Australian visa (supported by a foreign passport, which is needed for verification) current at the time of entry into Australia as a resident or tourist. This can also be accessed through the Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO) system delivered by the Department of Home Affairs; and
  • an ImmiCard issued by the Department of Home Affairs to assist visa holders to provide evidence of their Commencement of Identity in Australia; and
• A current Australian Passport, not expired.

Primary Use in Community Document

ONE (1) is required

• Australian passport not expired (including Ordinary, Frequent traveller, Diplomatic, Official and Emergency)
• an Australian driver licence, learner permit or provisional licence issued by a State or Territory, showing signature and/or photo;
• ImmiCard issued by the Department of Home Affairs to assist visa holders to provide evidence of their Commencement of Identity in Australia;
• a passport issued by a country other than Australia with a valid visa or valid entry stamp or equivalent;
• a proof of age or photo identity card issued by an Australian government agency which shows the name, date of birth, photo and signature of the individual; and
• for persons aged under 18 years with no other Primary Use in Community Documents, a student identity document issued by an Australian government agency or Australian school only.

Secondary Use in Community Document

TWO (2) are required

• DFAT issued Certificate of Identity;
• DFAT issued Document of Identity;
• DFAT issued United Nations Convention Travel Document Secondary;
• Foreign government issued documents (e.g. driver licences). Documents in languages other than English must be accompanied by a NAATI accredited translation;
• Medicare card;
• Enrolment with the Australian Electoral Commission;
• Security Guard/Crowd Control photo licence;
• Evidence of right to a government benefit (DVA or Centrelink);
• Consular photo identity card issued by DFAT;
• Police Force Officer photo identity card;
• Australian Defence Force photo identity card;
• Commonwealth or state/territory government photo identity card (this may take the form of a Working with Children or Vulnerable People Card or a government issued occupational licence);
• Aviation security identification card;
• Maritime security identification card;
• Firearms licence;
• Credit reference check;
• Australian secondary or tertiary student photo identity document;
• Certified academic transcript from an Australian university;
• Trusted referees report;
• Bank card, credit card (without recording the payment card number/s); and
• Tax File Number.

Learn more about the documents required for a police check.

An urgent priority can only be applied to checks where a delay in results may have a direct impact on the care, safety or provision of essential services within the community

Four general categories exist for urgent checks:

• specialist skills or an emergency or disaster situation;
• political reasons (including national security – for Australian Government only);
• medical reasons; or
• child-related process, including adoption and emergency placement.

Some examples include when:

• volunteers are needed to provide bushfire relief;
• support is needed for an upcoming election;
• medical specialists are required for locum work in a remote area; or
• emergency foster carers are needed.

Many types of reasons are not considered to be urgent priorities. Examples are when an individual:

• is offered employment and is due to start tomorrow;
• has an expired police clearance;
• cannot work until their check is returned; or
• has a professional registration pending a check.

Once the police check is submitted to the ACIC

70% of all Backy Check applications are completed in real-time*. These are the police checks which result in ‘no potential matches found’ and they have ‘no disclosable court outcomes’.

30% requiring manual process and 95% of those are processed within 10 days. These are found with ‘potential matches against applicant’s details'.

Please ensure you allow yourself adequate time to receive your police check just in case your application requires manual investigation.