On the 18th September, Radio 4’s ‘The Report’ broadcast an edition which focused on the ‘right to be forgotten’.
In particular, they look at some particular cases that relate to people with criminal convictions.
You can listen to the recording here.
Author: Unlock Admin
Film about disclosing convictions – “Making your past pay”
Earlier this week, there was a film launched by Staffordshire and West Midlands CRC about disclosing convictions to employers.
We helped them out with some of the content, and they mentioned Unlock and our Disclosure Calculator, which is good to see.
You should be able to watch the film below, and there’s more details about the video on the SWM CRC website.
Let us know what you think – feel free to comment at the bottom of this page!
Making Your Past Pay – Help with disclosing previous convictions to employers from SWM Probation on Vimeo.
Latest updates to our self-help information site – September 2014
We’ve just published a summary of the recent updates we’ve made to our Information Hub.
You can read the summary on our Hub here.
Have you got a job in a ‘regulated’ role, industry or sector? We’re looking for your examples!
A common message we get from people with convictions is that they think it’s impossible to find (and keep) work in ‘regulated’ roles, industries and sectors.
Likewise, in our work with employers, there are lots of myths from employers, thinking that they can’t employ somebody with a conviction, because their industry or sector is ‘regulated’ in some way.
Technically speaking, there is rarely a rule that prevents people from being employed in a particular role; it’s usually up to the discretion of the employer or regulator, depending on the sector of work.
What are we looking for?
We want to highlight what other people have done, so that this will give confidence to both people with convictions, and employers in particular sectors.
So we’re putting a call-out for examples of individuals who have been employed in some of the common ‘regulated’ industries and sectors. We want to show people that it is possible. We also want to show other employers how they could go about things better by learning from others.
What types of work are we looking at?
We’re looking for people to get in touch with us who have convictions and who have been employed in sectors where it is more common for ‘DBS checks’ to be done. This includes:
- Financial services (e.g. FCA-approved roles, banking industry, insurance sector)
- Security industry (e.g. working as a doorman)
- Legal profession (e.g. solicitors, barristers, paralegals)
- Criminal justice system (e.g. probation officer, working in prisons, courts, police)
- Health and social care (e.g. NHS, social worker)
- Education (e.g. teacher, lecturer)
We’re keen to hear about other examples from other sectors too – the list is potentially endless!
Find out more about what we’re looking for, and how to help, here.
New articles on theRecord
The number of people with unspent convictions
We regularly get asked how many people have unspent convictions.
Since the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act was amended in March 2014, the number of people whose conviction is unspent is expected to have reduced significantly, but nobody really knows by how much.
So, as a first attempt, we’ve pulled together some data which tries to do this, and the key findings are below.
Key findings
- Before the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 reforms, which came into force on the 10th March 2014, there were approximately 2,514,987 individuals with unspent convictions in England & Wales.
- Following the reforms to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, which came into force on the 10th March 2014, there were approximately 735,652 individuals with unspent convictions in England & Wales.
- 7,232 individuals receive a conviction each year that can never become spent.
Additional findings
- 2.03% of people that apply for a basic disclosure in England & Wales have unspent convictions disclosed.
- 6.94% of people that apply for a basic disclosure in Scotland have unspent convictions.
- 89% of the basic disclosures that Disclosure Scotland carry out are for people in England & Wales.
Got a different way of working this out?
We are interested in hearing about the efforts of others to better define the number of people with unspent convictions. Please send your thoughts to policy@unlock.org.uk or comment on this post below.
Article in Inside Time on ‘filtering’
We’ve written an article for Inside Time on the ‘filtering of convictions.
Latest updates: unlock.devchd.com/information-and-advice/ – July/August 2014
We’ve just published a summary of the recent updates we’ve made to our Information Hub.
You can read the summary on our Hub here.
DBS say that employers need to use the new DBS application forms
We’re pleased to hear that the DBS has today sent out a news update about their application forms, following Unlock’s complaint to the ICO.
In March 2014, the DBS announced that they were changing the question on their application form after a complaint by Unlock to the ICO. The complaint was about the DBS’s failure to promptly update their application form after ‘filtering’ came into force in May 2013.
In response to the complaint, the DBS updated the question they asked about criminal records, so that it made reference to ‘filtering‘, meaning that people with cautions and convictions didn’t need to disclose a caution or conviction when applying for a DBS check if it would be filtered.
Unfortunately, even after they took this action, we were still receiving calls to our Helpline from individuals who were applying for jobs, volunteering and university courses where they’d been given an old DBS form. This old form asked about “all convictions and cautions”. In one example we dealt with, a University was insisting that the individual disclose her conviction from 15 years ago, even though it was now filtered and so didn’t need to be disclosed. Although we eventually managed to resolve this issue, there were clearly still problems.
The main problem was that, although in March 2014 the DBS updated their form, they didn’t require registered bodies to use the new forms. This meant that many were still using the old form, causing lots of confusion about what individuals should and shouldn’t disclosed.
We raised this issue with the DBS, and the ICO, following our original complaint, and we are pleased that the DBS has now responded by making it clear that registered bodies need to use the new form, as well as sending these new forms to registered bodies for them to use.
The DBS has also produced an “Application form insert” which should be given to applicants who are doing DBS checks. This helps to explain to individuals what ‘filtering’ means, and helps to make it clear what individuals do and don’t have to disclose when applying for a role that involves a DBS check.
If you’re an employer, find out more useful information here.
If you’re an individual, find out more useful information here.
We’re looking for examples of where ‘filtering’ doesn’t go far enough
We’re looking for examples of where ‘filtering’ doesn’t go far enough. Please read an update that we’ve published on our main site as part of our policy work on the DBS filtering process.
