This information applies to you if your organisation is not an ACIC approved Customer registered through Cited.
Also – see this page if you order org submitted checks.
The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission operates the National Police Checking Service.
This service is made available to the public through ACIC’s partnership with accredited bodies – organisations that are authorised to provide the Service to members of the public and other organisations.
Bright Technologies Pty Ltd (a wholly owned subsidiary of Kinatico Ltd) is registered as an accredited body with the ACIC and is the owner of the Cited online screening and compliance management service you use to order background checks.
Through 2024, the ACIC has been working with Accredited Bodies to introduce a range of changes to the NPCS.
This information is describes the most important changes and how they’ll be introduced to the Cited platform for you and your Applicants.
From 1st January 2025, the check previously known as a National Police Check will be named, Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check or NCCHC.
Volunteer National Police Checks will be named Volunteer Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check or VNCCHC.
This is a change in name only. As before, these checks will return disclosable outcomes for an individual from all police jurisdictions in Australia.
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The results of Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Checks (NCCHC) and Volunteer Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Checks (VNCCHC) will be available for download from the Cited platform for three months from the date of issue.
This is a change from the previous availability of 12 months from the date of issue.
Why has result availability changed?
The ACIC have made this change to more clearly reflect the fact that NCCHC and VNCCHC results are accurate only as at the date of issue. By reducing the time that results are available for download, there is less likelihood that an outdated result document might be viewed and relied on as part of a hiring decision.
Both Individuals and the organisation to which their results have been shared may download a copy of a PDF result certificate. If your organisation will download and retain a copy of a result certificate in either digital or printed form, you should understand your obligations to protect the rights of the individual under the Privacy Act.
When are results deleted by Cited?
Cited is obliged by ACIC to retain NCCHC and VNCCHC results for 12 months from the issue date. The purpose of the internal retention period is to ensure that results are available for Cited or ACIC audit purposes.
While a record of the check will persist, Cited will be unable to extract or re-share results with Individuals or organisations after the three-month availability timeframe, whether they have been deleted or not.
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The ACIC has enhanced the requirements for collecting consent from an Applicant before processing a Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check.
Cited ensures that consent is obtained directly from the Applicant prior to the commencement of an NCCHC, including collection of the Applicant’s signature.
Actions required
No action is required from your organisation. All updated Applicant consent requirements will be collected automatically by the Cited online application process.
The ACIC requires that an organisation must be registered as an approved Customer with the ACIC before they can directly request a Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check and automatically receive the results.
If your organisation has not been approved by the ACIC, you may still obtain NCCHC results by sending an invitation to your Applicant, via Cited, asking them to conduct the required checks.
How does the invitation work?
Simply send the invitation to your Applicant via your Cited dashboard asking them to complete a Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check. The Check Results will be returned to the Applicant as the owner of the result.
Once a result is returned to the Applicant, Cited will invite the Applicant to share their result with you (as the organisation that referred them). Once they are satisfied with the results, the Applicant will have the option to simply and easily make their results available to your organisation from within their Cited profile.
Sharing is not mandatory
Importantly, the choice to share the result from a screening invitation is at the discretion of the Applicant as the owner of the result certificate. Cited may not compel the Applicant to share the results of their NCCHC check nor can we share the results of this NCCHC with your organisation directly.
Cited would expect that you will be in communication with your Applicant before and after submitting a screening invitation as a normal part of the hiring process. We recommend that you discuss the need to share such results if this is a pre-requisite condition in your hiring process.
Visibility of check results
NCCHC check invitations are visible within your Cited account and will reflect the sharing status of the Applicant’s NCCHC order. Results of the NCCHC check will not be available until or unless the Applicant gives their approval for the results to be shared.
Important notes
Under the invitation process, there is the risk that your organisation may pay for checks and then not receive these results. If the Applicant does not choose to share their results with your organisation, Cited will not offer a refund of any fees for the related checks.
Please note that for the purposes of performance or contractual SLAs, Cited will deem the check result to be delivered at the time we make it available to the Applicant for sharing with you.
ACIC Approval
If you are considering applying for registration as an ACIC approved Customer, please check the prerequisite criteria for approval here.
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There is no cost to apply for registration as an ACIC approved Customer.
Approval by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) means that your organisation may request that your applicants conduct a Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check through Cited and receive the results.
If your organisation is not approved, you may still invite applicants to conduct their own check. In this case, the individual is requesting their own NCCHC and they will need to explicitly share the results with you.
Every application must be assessed by the ACIC on a case by case basis. We can’t influence or control the time that each assessment takes to be concluded. Typically, the ACIC approval process can take 2-4 weeks depending on the current backlog. To ensure that your application is processed in the shortest possible time, please take care to answer each question fully and accurately.