Thanks everyone for their contributions - you certainly learn a lot getting involved in things like this! I'm glad in a way I've forced the issue - even if I'm probably making more of it than I should!

I realise there is a proposal that Wikimedia UK gets involved in schools educations projects where people go into schools and talk about what we do. Clearly that will involve regular contact with children. My cursory reading of CRB legal advice would draw me to the conclusion that the Board would be legally obliged to ensure that anyone involved in this - whether or not they were members of the Board - were appropriately checked and passed those checks. Clearly if someone refused, they could not be allowed to participate in these projects - but I see no reason why they should be forced off the Board - particularly the initial Board whose focus will be elsewhere.

The second issue is regarding junior members. Clearly we are inviting membership applications from all age groups - indeed there is a 17 year old participating in the email list (welcome by the way!). I am a little bit concerned that the person responsible for processing membership applications and recording details will end up with names, addresses, contact details and possibly more for children. I'm not sure it would be responsible - even if it were technically legal - giving someone access to this information who is potentially a risk to children. For that reason I'm inclined to the conclusion that we probably should require the membership secretary (or whatever office ends up doing this job) to be CRBed. If the person refused or failed they should also be relieved of the office - but not kicked off the Board.  Having said that, I can't see why the entire board would get involved in every application - perhaps the odd contentious one if the application is refused - or even having access to this information. So again, I don't see why this should require every Board member to agree to a CRB.

The third issue is regarding junior Board members. We have sidestepped this issue at the moment by requiring all candidates to be above 18 but under Company law we could actually accept 16 and 17 year olds as directors. The Charity Commission may have issues if the entire Board is 16 but I'm not sure that's likely! As I've said, it's not an issue at the moment but I don't know if it would be in the future if this policy changed.

All of these issues are details of a CRB policy which ultimately needs to be agreed by the Board in consultation with the community. I don't think any of them are grounds for forcing all Board candidates to agree to a CRB before they are even elected.

On a side issue, if everyone agrees with me on the second issue - needing to CRB the membership secretary - we may need to change the timetable and possibly push back the AGM for a month, because we wont be able to accept membership applications until after the CRB is received back.
Andrew Turvey