Non UK nationals
As one or two of you have stated it is strange that non of these checks apply to non-UK nationals. At BA there are 1000 + cabin crew all overseas nationals of which the checks are minimal and this is also the case for other airport / airline staff so the whole exercise seems to be deeply floored from the outset. In addition there are large numbers of Europeans working for UK based airlines and some of the USA carriers. In general I do not doubt the integrety of the crews and use them merely as an example as they probably are the largest group.
I suppose the positive side is that at least the UK is taking some action and it reflects what is happening in many other companies throughout the UK which require a CRO certificate prior to employ.