Screening checklist (BS 7858). A printable checklist for screening a security officer to BS 7858 — identity, right to work, employment history, references and the gaps assessors look for.
This is a checklist for running screening, not the standard itself and not advice on it. BS 7858 sets specific requirements that change between revisions, and the handling of criminal record and financial information carries obligations of its own — neither this sheet nor SecureOptix decides any of that for you. What the platform does is hold the file, show what is outstanding, and stop somebody being deployed before it is complete.
What is on the sheet
- Applicant details, the position and the date screening started
- Identity and right to work documents seen, recorded by type rather than copied onto the sheet
- Employment and activity history for the period the standard requires, with no unexplained gaps
- References sought, received and verified, including who verified them and how
- Financial and criminal record checks as the standard and the role require
- Outstanding items, the decision, who made it, and a secure-handling note
Why this record matters
Screening is where contracts are lost. An assessor will take a sample of personnel files and look for the same things every time: an unexplained gap in the history, a reference that was never actually verified, a file that was signed off as complete with an item outstanding.
Gaps are the first thing looked at and the thing most often fudged. A period an applicant cannot account for is not a failure — it is something that has to be explained and the explanation recorded. A file where the gap has simply been closed up by adjusting dates is a far worse finding than the gap would have been.
Verification of references is the second. A reference on headed paper that arrived by email, from an address nobody checked, is not a verified reference, and recording who verified it and how is what makes the file stand up.
This is tiered as a soft download and firmly so. BS 7858 is a standard with specific requirements that change between revisions, and screening involves criminal record and financial information with real legal weight. This is a checklist for running the process, not a substitute for the standard or for advice on it.
Use it with
- SIA licence check recordA printable record of checking an officer's SIA licence — the number, the sector, the expiry, what the public register said and when you looked.
- Officer site induction recordA printable site induction record for an officer joining a post — the assignment instructions, the site, the risks and the things that are only learned by being shown.
- Assignment instructions templateA printable assignment instructions pro-forma — the site, the post, what the officer is there to do, what they are not, and what happens when something goes wrong.
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Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. General guidance, not legal advice. Checked October 2026.