Your employer is asking because your employe is required to ask. It's an act of congress, and the employer can't employ you until having asked, and then with certain time passage, received.Your employer is making a good faith effort.
You're entitled to see everything your employer sees. It's a box you check on the form. That said, since the beginning of PRIA, I've never once had a copy of any of the records sent to me. I've requested them in every case.
Former employers are required to comply and notify the requesting parties about your training records and disciplinary action. Your former employer is not required to do a file dump, and most won't. Most employers aren't going to do more than receive the records. If you have training failures or disciplinary action (termination, for example) that you didn't disclose, then it may be an issue with your present employer. Beyond that, an employer isn't going to care about a "score" you received on your prior training, or call a former employer. Why did Mr. Ross get a sat/unsat...or 1,2,3,4,5...etc? Your new employer will do due diligence in checking and training and produce their own records. What the new employer does want is to comply with the law, and what the new employer does not want is to be surprised with the liability of an employee with a history of failures who comes aboard and hurts the employers operation or reputation.
Where former records will bite you is when you haven't been open or disclosed the past, and you need to know your past that will show up. Cheryl Cage's book, Reporting Clear, was a standard primer for some time in explaining how and why one should know one's background as it will be presented, before the future employer does. It's still available for purchase from Cage Marshall consulting.