Adults hosting Ukrainian refugee families with children must undergo ‘enhanced’ checks

All British adults who host Ukrainian refugee families with children will have to undergo "enhanced" security checks, the Government will announce on Friday.

The move follows warnings from charities that "light touch" checks on host families would not be sufficient to protect refugee children living for at least six months in the same house as sponsoring UK adults.

The "enhanced" Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks are generally restricted to workers in jobs such as teaching and social services dealing with children and vulnerable adults.

They require the full details of a person's criminal record, such as cautions, reprimands, warnings, spent and unspent convictions. Adults not hosting children will only have to undergo basic DBS checks.

Ministers say the checks will not delay refugee families coming to the UK because they will not have to be completed until after they arrive.

More than 150,000 Britons are said to have registered to open their homes to Ukrainian refugees who have no family links to the UK.

Ministers will on Friday unveil how the families and refugees will apply to enter the UK under the "Homes for Ukraine"  scheme. Only those with named refugee families with whom they have linked up – often through social media – will be able to participate in the first phase.

Charities, companies, church and other community groups are expected to ramp up numbers in the second phase of the scheme, when ministers hope to have set up a "matching" system that will link refugees with Britons without them having to do it for themselves.

Ministers say they have also streamlined the visa application process to complete it within days. Lord Harrington, the refugees minister, said earlier this week that he expected thousands to arrive next week, with the first due as early as Monday.

Refugee families will still have to demonstrate proof of residence in Ukraine, while British families will be required to demonstrate UK residence of at least six months and ID such as passports.

Refugees with passports will be fast-tracked through an online application process with security and biometric checks completed once they are in the UK. Those without passports may have to attend visa application centres in Poland or neighbouring countries.

It comes as councils have been urged to ditch the practice of taking away the 25 per cent tax discount of single people who house refugees fleeing armed conflicts.

Charities cited cases in which single householders have offered to take in Syrian or Afghan refugees only to be told they will lose their single person's council tax rebate, worth hundreds of pounds.

They say the "unnecessary bureaucratic" practice has penalised single people hosting refugees and should be scrapped immediately for the "Homes for Ukraine" scheme.

In one case, a 71-year-old widow was told last month by Hillingdon Council, Boris Johnson's constituency, that her council tax discount would be docked for hosting a Syrian refugee while he underwent four weeks of job training.

Elaine, a mother of three, said she had decided to inform the council when she offered to take in a 32-year-old, who needed to be near Pinewood studios to undergo training.

It was the first time she had taken in a refugee and the council emailed her back last month, saying: "If another adult moves into the property the single person's discount will need to be removed; however, if that person is a full-time student an alternative discount may be awarded."

It was equivalent to £500 on her council tax but she took in the Syrian, who was not a student, and wrote back to say she did not believe she should be docked for her generosity. "It just goes against the intention of what I was doing," she said.

"I don't see why I should be penalised for doing something for charity because there is no question of hosts being paid for anyone staying with them."

On Thursday, the council said it would ditch the practice for Ukrainian refugees and would "continue to honour the single person discount" for those participating in the "Homes for Ukraine" scheme.

Camden council announced this week that it would waive its right to increase council tax charges on single people who take in Ukrainians and urged ministers to amend the law to "make it easier for all local authorities to do the same". Lewisham has adopted a similar position.

Michael Gove's communities department, which is running the scheme, said it would discuss single occupant council tax discounts with councils, after pledging that no-one will lose tax or benefits if they take in an Ukrainian refugee under it.

A department official said ministers had not ruled out amending the law if necessary to end the practice. "We do not intend participation in the scheme to impact the amount of council tax a resident will pay," they said.

Sara Nathan, a founder of Refugees at Home, a charity which has linked up refugees with families or individual hosts, said councils from the Midlands to Newport in Gwent and across London had been penalising people's generosity by removing the discount for taking refugees.

She said it had been a longstanding problem and often involved older individuals living in larger houses. "It means someone paying extra for the very generous and welcoming act of hosting a refugee. It's an unnecessary bureaucratic punishment for doing a good thing," she added.