A CRUNCH decision is to be taken on whether councillors will face mandatory criminal background checks.

Blackburn with Darwen Council’s standards committee has worked up a proposal for members to undertake a basic disclosure and barring service check every four years at a cost of £25.

And members will vote on whether to approve the proposal at a council forum meeting next week.

Currently, a risk assessment is undertaken and councillors who fill roles where they have contact with children or vulnerable adults are required to have enhanced checks.

All prospective councillors make a personal declaration on nomination for office as regards criminal convictions.

But when elected, the current national regulations do not permit the council to ask councillors to agree to enhanced police and barred list checks.

In January, Tory group members voiced their opposition to the proposal and said it was pointless when the council already has a code of conduct.

In a report to council forum, standards committee chairman Cllr Saima Afzal said: “The committee considered that given the important role played by councillors in the community and the general expectations of the public as regards probity and integrity, it would be reasonable for the council to adopt a policy where every councillor following their election be expected to agree to a police conviction check, known as a basic disclosure, which is permitted within the regulations.

“The committee also expressed the view that the cost of any basic disclosures should be borne by the councillor, funded from their members allowance.

“The committee also considered that the role of the modern councillor by its nature meant regular unsupervised access to and representation of vulnerable people in a variety of settings and they felt the current rules prohibiting the higher enhanced level of check for all councillors should be reconsidered by government.”

A basic check will contain details of convictions and conditional cautions considered to be unspent under the terms of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. All basic checks, including volunteer applications, are £25.

The act aims to give those with convictions or cautions the chance ­— in certain circumstances - to wipe the slate clean and start afresh.

Under the act, eligible convictions or cautions become ‘spent’ after a specified period of time known as the ‘rehabilitation period’, the length of which varies depending on how the individual was dealt with.

A DBS check has no official expiry date. Any information included will be accurate at the time the check was carried out.

Current rules state you can’t be a councillor if you have been sentenced to prison for three months or more (including suspended sentences) during the last five years, or have been convicted of a corrupt or illegal practice by an election court.

Any sitting councillors who receive a three month custodial sentence or more, including suspended sentences, automatically lose their seat.