Ontario Police Record Checks: The PRCRA Schedule and Consent Rules in Detail

Ontario's Police Record Checks Reform Act, 2015 makes the Schedule to the Act an exhaustive whitelist: whatever a check can disclose is limited to items the Schedule actually lists, and nothing outside it can be disclosed on any of the three check types the Act creates, no matter how the request is phrased.

Information last verified on 2026-08-17. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

This article covers police record checks in Ontario under the Police Record Checks Reform Act, 2015, S.O. 2015, c. 30 (PRCRA) and its regulation, Ontario Regulation 347/18. For the three-tier comparison at a national level, including how the tiers work outside Ontario, see criminal record checks in Canada; this page does not repeat that overview and instead goes into the Ontario statute's own section numbers and disclosure rules. For the federal machinery behind the Vulnerable Sector Check's sexual offence flag, including the Criminal Records Act notation system and the record suspension interplay, see vulnerable sector checks in Canada. For an employer's legal obligations when requesting any of these checks, see background checks and employment in Canada.

The Three Check Types and Who Must Conduct Them

Section 8(1) of the PRCRA creates three types of police record check that a chief of police or a designated member of a police service must conduct:

1. Criminal record check.
2. Criminal record and judicial matters check.
3. Vulnerable sector check.

Section 8(2) allows an authorized body, a third-party entity, or an entity permitted by the RCMP to access CPIC to conduct any of the three types, if an agreement with a police service or the laws of Canada permits it for that particular type. In practice, the two lower tiers are often run through an accredited third-party provider, while a Vulnerable Sector Check must be completed by the applicant's local police service, per the Ministry of the Solicitor General's own program guidance; the Act's general permission in section 8(2) does not override that operational restriction.

The Act applies, under section 2(1), to anyone requiring a CPIC or other Canadian police database search to screen an individual for employment, volunteer work, a licence, an office, membership in a body, providing or receiving goods or services, or admission to an educational institution or program. Section 2(2) lists nine numbered exceptions directly in the Act, one of which (item 8) was repealed in 2026 and no longer applies, leaving eight currently in force, covering searches for purposes such as child custody proceedings under the Children's Law Reform Act, the Office of the Children's Lawyer, name changes under the Change of Name Act, jury-roll searches under the Juries Act, and the Attorney General's own functions.

The Schedule Is an Exhaustive Whitelist, Not an Exclusion List

"9 A police record check provider shall not disclose information in response to a request for a police record check unless the information is authorized to be disclosed in connection with the particular type of police record check in accordance with the Schedule." (PRCRA, s. 9)

This is the structural fact that governs every other rule on this page. The Schedule to the Act is not a list of things that must be excluded from a check; it is a positive whitelist of the only things a provider may disclose. Anything the Schedule's table does not enumerate, including general police-contact records where no charge was ever laid, cannot be disclosed on any of the three check types, regardless of what the requesting organization asks for.

The table below reproduces the Schedule's disclosure rules, current to the consolidation in force as of this article's verification date.

Source: Schedule to the Act, as amended by 2017, c. 14, Schedule 4, section 29(2) and 2026, c. 7, Schedule 6, section 4, the latter of which added the prescribed form requirement to item 9.

Non-Conviction Information: The Exceptional Disclosure Test for a Vulnerable Sector Check

Item 9 of the Schedule refers to non-conviction information, a term section 1(1) of the Act defines as information concerning the fact that an individual was charged with a criminal offence if the charge was dismissed, withdrawn, or stayed, or resulted in a stay of proceedings or an acquittal. Section 10, titled "Exceptional disclosure of non-conviction information, vulnerable sector check," applies only to Vulnerable Sector Check requests; it has no counterpart for the other two tiers.

Section 10(2) sets out a three-part test, and all three parts must be met:

"(2) Non-conviction information about the individual is not authorized for exceptional disclosure unless the information satisfies all of the following criteria:

1. The criminal charge to which the information relates is for an offence specified in the regulations made under subsection 22 (2) (c).
2. The alleged victim was a child or a vulnerable person.
3. After reviewing entries in respect of the individual, the police record check provider has reasonable grounds to believe that the individual has been engaged in a pattern of predation indicating that the individual presents a risk of harm to a child or a vulnerable person, having regard to the following: i. Whether the individual appears to have targeted a child or a vulnerable person. ii. Whether the individual's behaviour was repeated and was directed to more than one child or vulnerable person. iii. When the incident or behaviour occurred. iv. The number of incidents. v. The reason the incident or behaviour did not lead to a conviction. vi. Any other prescribed considerations." (PRCRA, s. 10(2))

A single withdrawn charge, on its own, without a demonstrated pattern and without a child or vulnerable person as the alleged victim, cannot pass this test. Where a provider does disclose non-conviction information under this section, section 10(3) requires the record to contain the Act's own statutory definition of non-conviction information and be clearly identified as such, so the recipient organization cannot mistake it for a conviction.

The individual has a further, statutory right of reconsideration:

"(4) If the individual submits a request for reconsideration in accordance with the regulations, the provider shall, within 30 days after receiving the reconsideration request, reconsider its determination in accordance with any requirements prescribed by the Minister. (5) Non-conviction information shall not be disclosed if, after a reconsideration, the provider determines the information does not meet the criteria listed in subsection (2)." (PRCRA, s. 10(4) to (5))

This section 10(4) to (5) mechanism should not be confused with the separate reconsideration process in Ontario Regulation 347/18, section 0.4. That regulation section governs a structurally different pathway: it requires every police service to create and implement a process for reconsidering information disclosed under one of the regulation's own exemptions (section 0.3), and it withholds that exemption-based information if a reconsideration determines it no longer meets section 0.3's public safety criteria. It does not reference, and does not implement, section 10 of the Act. Section 10(4) itself leaves the specific reconsideration process for a vulnerable sector check to be prescribed by regulation under section 22(2)(d) of the Act; whether the Minister has made such a regulation was not confirmed for this article.

Two-Stage Consent: Requesting, Conducting, and Disclosing

The PRCRA gates consent at two separate points, and they should not be conflated.

The first is consent to conduct the check at all. Section 8(3) provides that a police record check provider shall not conduct a check unless the request contains the individual's written consent to that particular type of check. Section 7 governs who may request a check in the first place: an individual may request one on themselves in writing under section 7(1), and a third party such as an employer may request one under section 7(2), but the request must specify which of the three types is being requested under section 7(4).

The second is consent to release the results. Section 12(1) requires a provider to disclose the results of a check to the individual who is the subject of the request, and bars disclosure to anyone else, subject to section 12(2). Section 12(2) then allows disclosure to the requesting person or organization only if the individual provides written consent after receiving the results. In other words, results go to the applicant first as a matter of statutory default, and releasing them to a prospective employer requires a second, separate written consent given after the applicant has already seen what the check found. Section 13 then restricts what the recipient organization may do with the information, limiting its use to the purpose for which it was requested or as otherwise authorized by law.

A narrower alternate pathway exists for the two lower tiers only: Ontario Regulation 347/18, section 21.1, creates a self-declaration exemption from section 12, where an applicant declares their own conviction history and police confirm only a match or no match, gated on its own separate written consent under section 21.1(1)(c). This exemption does not apply to a Vulnerable Sector Check.

What Cannot Appear at All: Mental Health Contact and Street Check Information

Two categories of information are barred from every standard check outright, and the mechanism is a specific provision inside the exemptions regulation rather than a general prohibition written into the Act itself. Ontario Regulation 347/18, section 0.3(4)(a), provides that for checks performed under sections 9, 10, and 12 of the Act, meaning the ordinary Criminal Record Check, Criminal Record and Judicial Matters Check, and Vulnerable Sector Check, mental health contact information and street check information may never be disclosed, regardless of any public safety justification a police service might otherwise rely on for an exempted check.

Both terms are defined in section 0.1 of the same regulation. Mental health contact information means non-criminal information held by a police service relating to the actual, alleged, or perceived mental health or addictions issues of an individual, covering things like a wellness check or a crisis-line dispatch that never led to a charge. Street check information means non-criminal information gathered when an officer asks someone for identifying information while investigating offences or gathering intelligence, and it expressly includes information relating to current or historical carding activity in accordance with Ontario Regulation 58/16, made under the Police Services Act. Section 0.3(4)(a) is the actual disclosure bar for both categories; the regulation only cross-references Ontario Regulation 58/16 for what counts as carding activity in the first place, it does not itself set out that regulation's separate carding rules, and this article does not describe Ontario Regulation 58/16's own mechanics beyond that cross-reference.

The Not-Criminally-Responsible Nuance: Two Different Things

Item 7 of the Schedule and the mental health contact bar in section 0.3(4)(a) look similar on the surface but describe two categorically different situations, and a check description that blurs them will misstate one or the other.

Non-criminal mental health contact, meaning a wellness check, a crisis-line dispatch, or an apprehension that never resulted in a criminal charge, is barred from every standard check by section 0.3(4)(a), full stop; it cannot appear on any of the three tiers.

A formal finding of not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder is a different thing entirely: it is a court disposition under Part XX.1 of the Criminal Code, made after a person was actually charged with an offence and the matter went before a court. That finding can appear on a Vulnerable Sector Check, under Schedule item 7, unless the request is made more than 5 years after the finding, or the individual received an absolute discharge. It never appears on a Criminal Record Check or a Criminal Record and Judicial Matters Check.

Who Conducts a Check, and What It Costs

Section 8(1) obligates a chief of police or a designated member of a police service to conduct all three types, and section 8(2) permits an authorized body, third-party entity, or RCMP-permitted CPIC-access entity to conduct any of them under an agreement or under federal law. The Ministry of the Solicitor General's own program guidance states that a Vulnerable Sector Check specifically must be completed by the applicant's local police service, an operational restriction narrower than section 8(2)'s general permission for the other two tiers. The Ministry does not itself issue checks or license third-party providers; it directs applicants to their municipal police service, First Nations police service, the Ontario Provincial Police, or an authorized third-party provider for the lower two tiers.

The Act sets no province-wide fee schedule. Section 7(5) requires a request to be accompanied by an applicable fee, without stating an amount, and the Ministry's own guidance tells applicants to check fees directly with whichever police service or provider processes the request. The one fee rule the Act does set specifically is section 7(6): a Criminal Record Check or Criminal Record and Judicial Matters Check conducted directly by a police service is free when requested for a volunteer position, covering the check itself, its disclosure under section 12, and up to five extra copies requested at application time. This waiver does not extend to a Vulnerable Sector Check, and does not apply if a third-party provider rather than the police service itself conducts the check.

Exemptions Under Ontario Regulation 347/18

Section 2(2), paragraph 9 of the Act lets the government prescribe further exceptions by regulation, and Ontario Regulation 347/18 does exactly that for a defined list of sectors, including adoption and child welfare searches under the Child, Youth and Family Services Act, 2017, correctional and parole volunteers, policing services personnel, and schools and child care providers. The schools and child care exemption in section 19 is itself narrower than the main Schedule, limiting disclosure to specific categories such as outstanding restraining orders and provincial charges or convictions under that Act or the Highway Traffic Act, rather than the fuller range the Schedule otherwise permits.

Even under an exemption, section 0.3(2) and (3) bar release of mental health contact information, street check information, or victim information unless a chief of police or designate reasonably believes a four-part public safety test is met: a clear, ongoing public safety concern, directly relevant to the position, based on reliable sources. That test does not apply at all to the three standard check types under sections 9, 10, and 12; for those, section 0.3(4)(a) bars both categories outright, with no exception.

A 2026 Amendment and an Open Question on Service Standards

The current consolidation of the PRCRA in force as of this article's verification date reflects an amendment made by 2026, chapter 7, Schedule 6, in force February 6, 2026. That amendment added the prescribed form language now in Schedule item 9 (see the table above), and added a new Part to the Act, Service Standards, at section 14.1, under which a police record check provider must comply with any prescribed service standards for conducting police record checks. Section 22(2)(e) gives the Minister the power to make regulations for the purposes of section 14.1, establishing those service standards, including specific timeframes within which a check must be conducted, and governing a provider's reporting requirements on compliance. Whether the Minister has actually made a regulation setting specific timeframes under this new framework had not been confirmed as of this article's verification date; readers relying on a specific processing-time guarantee should confirm current requirements directly with ontario.ca or the police service processing their request, rather than assuming a timeframe regulation is already in effect.

How British Columbia's Approach Differs

British Columbia has no PRCRA equivalent. Its Criminal Records Review Act, RSBC 1996, c. 86, is a narrower, purpose-specific statute: section 2(1) limits its purpose to preventing physical and sexual abuse of children and physical, sexual, and financial abuse of vulnerable adults, and it applies only to people who work or volunteer with unsupervised or potential access to children or vulnerable adults, not to the general-purpose, any-employer check that Ontario's Criminal Record Check and Criminal Record and Judicial Matters Check tiers provide. Rather than a disclose or do-not-disclose Schedule, British Columbia runs checks through a centralized provincial registrar, with a deputy registrar making individual risk determinations against relevant or specified offence schedules, a materially different architecture from the PRCRA's police-service-by-police-service, whitelist-based model. It is a different mechanism, not a British Columbia version of the PRCRA.

Practical Notes

An individual who believes information on a check is inaccurate, or who wants to formally contest a Vulnerable Sector Check's exceptional disclosure determination, has real statutory avenues: the section 10(4) to (5) reconsideration right described above, and the section 10(3) requirement that any disclosed non-conviction information be clearly labelled as such rather than presented as a conviction. Someone applying for a position that requires a check should confirm with the requesting organization, or the processing police service, which of the three types applies, since the Act ties what can be disclosed to which type was actually requested. This article describes the statutory framework only; a reconsideration request is a formal process governed by regulation, not a way to negotiate around a result an applicant simply dislikes.

Disclaimer

This article is informational only and is not legal advice. It covers police record checks in Ontario under the Police Record Checks Reform Act, 2015, S.O. 2015, c. 30, and Ontario Regulation 347/18, current to the Ontario e-laws consolidation as of this article's verification date. It does not cover other provinces in depth beyond the single British Columbia contrast above, and it does not confirm whether a service standards regulation has been made under the Act's new section 22(2)(e) authority. Confirm current requirements directly with the Ministry of the Solicitor General, the processing police service, or a lawyer licensed in Ontario before relying on anything described here for a specific situation.

Frequently Asked Questions

What makes the Schedule to Ontario's PRCRA different from a typical background check policy?

Section 9 of the Police Record Checks Reform Act, 2015 makes the Schedule an exhaustive whitelist: a police record check provider cannot disclose anything the Schedule's table does not specifically list, on any of the three check types. This is different from an exclusion-based approach; anything not enumerated is automatically off limits, including general police contact that never led to a charge.

Can a withdrawn charge appear on an Ontario police record check?

Not on a Criminal Record Check or a Criminal Record and Judicial Matters Check; Schedule item 9 makes non-conviction information, which includes a withdrawn charge, do not disclose on both tiers with no exception. On a Vulnerable Sector Check, a withdrawn charge can appear only if it clears every part of the section 10(2) three-part exceptional disclosure test, and the individual has a statutory right to request reconsideration within 30 days under section 10(4).

Does a police record check in Ontario show mental health history?

Non-criminal mental health contact, such as a wellness check or a crisis dispatch that never led to a charge, is barred from every standard check by Ontario Regulation 347/18, section 0.3(4)(a). A separate situation, a formal court finding of not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder after being charged, is a different thing and can appear on a Vulnerable Sector Check within five years under Schedule item 7, unless the individual received an absolute discharge.

How much does a police record check cost in Ontario?

The Act itself sets no fee amount; section 7(5) requires an applicable fee without specifying one, and fees are set locally by whichever police service or provider processes the request. The one fee rule the Act does fix is section 7(6): a Criminal Record Check or Criminal Record and Judicial Matters Check conducted directly by a police service is free for a volunteer position, though this waiver does not extend to a Vulnerable Sector Check.

Who has to consent before an Ontario police record check can be run and shared?

Consent works in two separate stages. Section 8(3) requires the individual's written consent before a check can even be conducted. Section 12 then sends the results to the individual first as a matter of default, and releasing them to the requesting employer or organization requires a second, separate written consent given only after the individual has already seen the results.

Is Ontario's police record check system the same as British Columbia's?

No. British Columbia's Criminal Records Review Act is a narrower, purpose-specific statute limited to people working with children or vulnerable adults, run through a centralized provincial registrar that makes risk determinations against offence schedules. It does not use a disclosure whitelist like Ontario's Schedule, and it is a different mechanism, not a British Columbia version of the PRCRA.

Can a private background check company issue an official Ontario Vulnerable Sector Check?

Ministry guidance states a Vulnerable Sector Check must be completed by the applicant's local police service. Section 8(2) of the PRCRA does let an authorized body or third-party entity conduct any of the three check types under an agreement, but this operational restriction means only a police service actually issues a Vulnerable Sector Check in practice.