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For people with criminal records
For people with criminal records

Author: Debbie Sadler

Monthly summary – September 2017

Welcome to our monthly summary for September 2017.

This provides a summary of:

  1. the latest updates to our self-help information site for people with convictions
  2. recent posts to our online magazine, theRecord
  3. discussions on our online forum
  4. other news and developments that might be of interest to people with a criminal record

Have you just stumbled across this? You can receive these updates direct to your inbox every month for free by signing up to our mailing list (make sure you choose to receive ‘news for people with convictions’)


Updates to our information site

Here’s a summary of the updates that we’ve made recently to the theInformationHub. There are links within each update to where you can find more information about the update. There are also links next to many of the updates, which link to threads on our online forum where you can discuss these with other people with convictions. 

About criminal records

  • What’s new from ACRO Criminal Records Office – We’ve written an advice post relating to the 2016/17 annual report of the ACRO Criminal Records Office. There’s some interesting information relating to how convictions received overseas are shared with the UK and also figures around the number of occasions that criminal record information has been deleted from the Police National Computer.

Work and volunteering

  • Applying for a taxi licence – We’ve produced some new information setting out how a criminal record may affect your chances of success in being granted a taxi licence from your local council.
  • Challenging an ineligible check – We’ve updated this page highlighting what information you need to include when contacting the Disclosure and Barring Service to challenge the eligibility of a DBS check.

theRecord posts

Below are links to recent posts to our online magazine, theRecord. These are often linked to from the practical information that we have, to help give some personal experiences.

Success – I couldn’t let a caution for ABH hold me back – Getting a job in the NHS – ‘I can’t help feeling that I’m a victim of ‘the system’. In 2008, after enduring more than a year of emotional abuse from my partner, the police came knocking at my door …..’

Success – Thanks to the police I’m able to pick my grandson up from school – Getting my SOPO discharged – ‘In 2010 I was convicted of a number of sexual offences and received a three year community order and an indefinite SOPO. With everything that was going on in court, I didn’t give too much thought to the term ‘indefinite’ and it was only later that I realised the significance of this …..’

Struggles and stigma – Employment embargo – Why does the prison think employers are ‘unsuitable’ and refuse to let me work? – ‘During the time I’ve spent in prison, I’ve had a variety of ‘jobs’ – sorting rubbish, working in the print shop, even packing headphones. The worst part of being in prison is the boredom so being out of your cell and working helps to break up the day …..’

Discussions on our online forum

Below are links to recent posts to our online forum. If you’d like to join in the discussion but are not currently a forum member, find out how you can join here.

Travelling abroad under probation – Nestor has been told by his probation officer that whilst he is on licence he won’t be allowed to travel to the EU. He wants some advice about the consequences of travelling without seeking permission from his probation officer. Can you help?

Police disclosure of criminal record – Normallife is on the SOR and plays football for a five-a-side team on a pitch owned by a school. Although he only plays outside school hours, the police are threatening to disclose his offence to the school. Has anybody had any experience of this?

Other news and developments

Below are links to other news and developments that might be of interest to people with a criminal record. For more news, check out the news and media section of our main website.

Unlock comment – The Lammy review

Christopher Stacey commented on David Lammy’s recommendations for reform of the criminal record disclosure regime. Read his comments and his blog in which he explains why ‘sealing’ criminal records is a good idea and how it could work.

Insurance companies are breaking the law by taking into account old criminal records

We’ve published new research which highlights major problems in the way that insurance companies deal with the criminal records of people applying for home insurance. You can download the research here.

As a result of the research, Unlock was invited onto Radio 4’s Money Box programme. You can listen to the programme here.

Monthly update – September 2017

We’ve just published our update for September 2017.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This months update includes:

  1. New information on applying for a taxi licence
  2. An update to our page on challenging an ineligible Disclosure and Barring Service check
  3. A personal story on getting a job working for the NHS following a caution for ABH
  4. A link to a discussion on theForum on travelling abroad whilst on licence
  5. Details of research we’ve recently published on the way that insurance companies deal with people with criminal records when they apply for home insurance.

 

The full update provides a summary of:

  1. the latest updates to our self-help information site for people with convictions
  2. recent posts to our online magazine, theRecord
  3. discussions on our online forum
  4. other news and developments that might be of interest to individuals with a criminal record

 

Read the September 2017 update in full

 

Best wishes,

Unlock

 

Notes

  • All previous updates can be found in full in the ‘Latest updates‘ section of our Information Hub
  • For more self-help information, please visit unlock.devchd.com/information-and-advice/
  • If you have any questions about this information, please contact our helpline
  • If you’ve been forwarded this email, you can sign up to receive these updates directly by clicking here and selecting to receive ‘News/updates for people with convictions’
  • If you have found this information useful, please leave us your feedback and/or consider making a donation.

 

Thinking of becoming a taxi driver? Will your criminal record stop you?

Following our advice post last year on applying for a taxi licence, our helpline continues to receive many enquiries relating to this and so we have produced some new information on applying for a taxi licence with a criminal record.

Given the initial cost of applying for the licence, possible problems in getting taxi insurance, and with concerns around having an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check, people with criminal records are often put off from applying for a taxi licence. However, a criminal record will not automatically stop you from getting a licence and like any job, your ability to disclose your criminal record effectively can make all the difference.

A Freedom of Information request by the BBC earlier this year revealed that across six councils in the north-west, 300 people with convictions have been granted licences since 2012. Blackpool Council stated that when reviewing licence applications they considered factors including the age of the conviction, the sentence/disposal imposed and the applicants conduct since the offence. They had granted licences to many drivers with convictions for theft, burglary and criminal damage.

For more information

  1. For practical self-help information – More information is available on applying for a taxi licence and disclosing criminal records to employers 
  2. Questions – If you have any questions about this you can contact our helpline

What’s new from ACRO Criminal Records Office?

Unless you’ve travelled abroad and needed a police certificate or applied for a subject access request (SAR) to help get a better understanding of your criminal record, you may never have come across ACRO Criminal Records Office (ACRO).

They have just published their annual report for 2016/17 showing an annual income of almost £13 million and we thought it might be useful to highlight some relevant information from that report.

Travelling abroad

If you’re looking to move abroad or require a visa to visit certain countries (for example the US), you will probably need to apply for a police certificate and in 2016/17, ACRO received 131,560 applications. The majority of the certificates had no conviction information disclosed however 12,796 (almost 10%) showed ‘live’ convictions and 7,875 (6%) showed ‘no live trace’.

A survey undertaken by ACRO highlighted that 88% of respondents from Embassy’s and High Commission’s etc. stated that Police Certificates were an important component in their decision as to whether to issue or deny a visa. Therefore, being very clear about what’s on your certificate and knowing how to disclose it to an immigration officer could have a significant impact on your chances of success.

Convictions received overseas

As at March 2017, it has been possible for the UK to exchange criminal record information with 25 out of 27 EU member states via the European Criminal Records Information System (ECRIS).

In 2016/17 there was a 22% increase in the number of notifications sent to ACRO which related to UK nationals who’d received a conviction overseas. Of the 12,336 notifications received, 7,064 resulted in conviction information being added to the Police National Computer (PNC) – 1,531 were for violent offences and 325 related to sexual offences.

In October 2016 ACRO were notified that a UK national who had received a conviction for a sexual offence in Cyprus was returning to the UK. ACRO informed the local police in the area he would be returning to who contacted the gentleman at home to arrange a risk assessment and consider possible ways that he would be monitored in the community

Deletion of criminal record information from the PNC

For the last two years, ACRO has been responsible for coordinating the record deletion process on behalf of all police forces in the UK. In 2016/17, 1,512 people applied to have their records deleted from the PNC. Of these, 479 were successful, 10 had part of their records deleted, 494 were refused and 266 applications were not eligible. The deletions related to police intelligence (sometimes referred to as additional information) and in some cases, DNA and fingerprints.

If you’ve had an enhanced DBS check done in the past and the police have chosen to disclose additional information, then it may be worth considering making an application to have it removed, especially if it’s had an adverse effect on your ability to get a job or join a college or university course.

For more information

  1. For practical self-help information – More information is available on our police certificates, convictions obtained overseas and disclosure of police intelligence on enhanced checks sections
  2. Questions – If you have any questions about this, you can contact our helpline.

Monthly summary – August 2017

Welcome to our monthly summary for August 2017.

This provides a summary of:

  1. the latest updates to our self-help information site for people with convictions
  2. recent posts to our online magazine, theRecord
  3. discussions on our online forum
  4. other news and developments that might be of interest to people with a criminal record

Have you just stumbled across this? You can receive these updates direct to your inbox every month for free by signing up to our mailing list (make sure you choose to receive ‘news for people with convictions’)


Updates to our information site

Here’s a summary of the updates that we’ve made recently to the theInformationHub. There are links within each update to where you can find more information about the update. There are also links next to many of the updates, which link to threads on our online forum where you can discuss these with other people with convictions. 

About criminal records

  • Serious Crime Prevention Orders (SCPO) – We’ve produced some new information which sets out the circumstances whereby a Court would give a SCPO and examples of the conditions that it may contain.

Work and volunteering

  • Disclosing a conviction you don’t believe you’re guilty of – We’ve written an advice post detailing ways of disclosing your criminal record if you don’t believe you’ve done anything wrong.

Travel

Prison issues

  • Working for an outside employer while still in prison – We’ve updated this page which includes a Victims Levy Calculator to help you work out how much of your wages will be deducted when you start working outside of the prison.

For family members of people with convictions

  • We’ve developed a new information page bringing together links to information, resources and useful contacts which may be helpful to family members of people with convictions.

theRecord posts

Below are links to recent posts to our online magazine, theRecord. These are often linked to from the practical information that we have, to help give some personal experiences.

Success – Getting permission from probation to return overseas to my husband and family – “To say that I’ve had the year from hell is an understatement. At the beginning of the year I was convicted of a white collar crime and given a suspended sentence and 300 hours of unpaid work. Up until the time I was arrested, I’d been living with my husband 5,000 miles away from the UK but whilst awaiting my court appearance and sentencing I hadn’t been allowed to leave the UK …..’

Struggles and stigma – Struggling to find work with a life sentence – “In 1999 I was tried and convicted of murder. I had never been in trouble before and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I will never re-offend. A moment of complete and utter madness led me to doing something that I never thought possible …..’

Success – Overcoming my lack of confidence to get my dream job – working as a teaching assistant – “Ever since I can remember I have loved teaching, forever holding pretend classes and showing my younger siblings how to do things …..’

Discussions on our online forum

Below are links to recent posts to our online forum. If you’d like to join in the discussion but are not currently a forum member, find out how you can join here.

Post Brexit impact on travelling to Europe – Normallife has expressed his concerns about the ability to move and live in Europe when we leave the EU. Is this something that you’re worried about? Let us have your thoughts.

Confused – Peter wanted some advice on changing his probation officer and taking his complaint to the Probation Ombudsman. Do you have any advice you can offer? 

Other news and developments

Below are links to other news and developments that might be of interest to people with a criminal record. For more news, check out the news and media section of our main website.

Basic DBS checks are coming soon – find out more

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) is introducing basic criminal record checks for people in England and Wales. Basic checks disclose unspent convictions but not ones that have become spent. This replaces the service previously provided by Disclosure Scotland. Find our more information here.

 

Monthly update – August 2017

We’ve just published our update for August 2017.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This months update includes:

  1. Updated information on travelling to the US
  2. An advice post detailing ways of disclosing your criminal record if you don’t believe you’ve done anything wrong
  3. A personal story on getting permission from probation to return overseas following a conviction in the UK
  4. A link to a discussion on theForum around the impact of Brexit on travelling to Europe
  5. Details of how the Disclosure and Barring Service will be introducing basic criminal record checks for people in England and Wales.

 

The full update provides a summary of:

  1. the latest updates to our self-help information site for people with convictions
  2. recent posts to our online magazine, theRecord
  3. discussions on our online forum
  4. other news and developments that might be of interest to individuals with a criminal record

 

Read the August 2017 update in full

 

Best wishes,

Unlock

 

Notes

  • All previous updates can be found in full in the ‘Latest updates‘ section of our Information Hub
  • For more self-help information, please visit unlock.devchd.com/information-and-advice/
  • If you have any questions about this information, please contact our helpline
  • If you’ve been forwarded this email, you can sign up to receive these updates directly by clicking here and selecting to receive ‘News/updates for people with convictions’
  • If you have found this information useful, please leave us your feedback and/or consider making a donation.

 

How do you disclose a conviction you don’t believe you’re guilty of?

The majority of our information around disclosing to an employer assumes that you will be declaring a criminal record for which you have accepted some guilt.

And as a charity, Unlock focuses on supporting people who have accepted responsibility for their actions and are now looking to move forward with their life.

But, how do you go about disclosing something which you don’t believe you’re guilty of?

Many are aware of how difficult it is to find a job if you’ve got a criminal record with 75% of employers admitting to discriminating against applicants on the basis of a criminal record.

However, if you’re fortunate enough to be offered an interview and the chance to explain your criminal record, employers will want to see that you’ve taken responsibility for your conviction and demonstrate that you’re not going to make the same mistake again. This is hard to do if you believe you haven’t done anything wrong in the first place.

If you try to put yourself in an employer’s shoes (some of whom have limited experience of the criminal justice system), stating that you didn’t do the thing you’ve been convicted of may lead them to believe that you’re just not prepared to face up to what you’ve done or not ready to accept any responsibility for your actions.

Option 1 – Accept responsibility

Some people who believe they’ve been wrongly convicted choose, for the purposes of disclosing to employers at least, to accept the fact that they have a conviction when seeking work and, recognising the above, present themselves as acknowledging their guilt.  This is where our main advice on disclosing to employers will be important.

For those who admit their guilt to something, but not the technical offence they were convicted of, it may be better to simply accept responsibility.

Option 2 – Stick to saying you’re not guilty

Some people want to convince an employer that they haven’t committed the offence they’ve been convicted of. If this is you, you need to bear in mind the challenges with this so you’ll need to think carefully of the best way of putting this across. If an employer will be doing any formal criminal record checks then you’ll need to explain what will appear on any certificate as well as giving some background as to the circumstances surrounding your arrest and conviction.

As you’re disclosing, remember you’re doing so to get a job, not to convince the employer that you’ve been wrongly convicted. Concentrate on demonstrating why you’re the best person for the job, not what’s wrong with the criminal justice system.

Ultimately, it’s a difficult choice

As a charity Unlock believes that, ultimately, people need to accept the situation that they’re in and move forward. All of our experience of working with individuals and employers shows that a key way that people overcome the barrier of their criminal record is by taking responsibility and ownership of the past and making it clear to employers that history won’t repeat itself. That said, the reality is that there is undoubtedly people who have a criminal record who have been convicted of things they didn’t do. Ultimately, it’s a difficult (and very personal) choice.

For more information

  1. For practical self-help information – More information is available on our disclosing criminal records to employers section
  2. Questions – If you have any questions about this, you can contact our helpline.

Does a member of your family have a criminal record? Want to know how this will affect you?

Hot off the back of today’s report by Lord Farmer setting out the importance that maintaining good family relationships plays in relation to the rehabilitation of people in prison, yesterday we published new information for the family members of people with convictions.

Unlike the other information and advice on our site, which is aimed at people who have a criminal record themselves, this new information deals specifically with issues relating to criminal records as seen through the eyes of family members of those with convictions.

For more information

  1. For practical self-help information – More information is available on our families of people with convictions section
  2. Questions – If you have any questions about this you can contact our helpline.

 

Do you want to travel to the US? Have a look at our updated information

The most popular section on our information site is our “travelling to the US” one, and our helpline receives many enquiries from people with a criminal record looking to travel to the US.

In 2015 over 4.9 million people visited the US from the UK. A significant number of these will have some form of criminal record. Many will have successfully applied for a visa whilst others will have been able to travel under the Visa Waiver Program because they didn’t need to disclose it. Some will have decided to take the risk and not disclose.

So we’ve spent quite a bit of time re-looking at the details we have on our information site on this, to make sure that we’re doing our best to clearly set out the situation and help people find answers to the questions they’ve got.

What have we done? We’ve updated our existing information with a new information page specifically for travelling to the US, and we’ve then created four separate (but linked) pages which will hopefully make it easier to find what you’re looking for:

  1. Do I need a visa?
  2. Travelling without a visa
  3. Applying for a visa
  4. Will I get a visa?

For more information

  1. For practical self-help information – More information is available on our travelling to the US section
  2. Questions – If you have any questions about this you can contact our helpline.

Moving on: What can I do about information that’s reported about my offence online?

This month, we’ve written another article for Inside Times ‘Through the Gate’ section which focuses on dealing with information that’s available about you online.

A copy of the article can be found below.

As you prepare to leave prison and start considering applying for jobs or housing, you might also have to think about the risk of an internet search revealing the details of your criminal record.

Although official criminal records are not available online, if there was any media interest in your case then it’s likely that information about you can be found from newspaper articles. We regularly hear from individuals whose employers have carried out ‘Google’ searches as a way of informally checking their criminal records. Even work colleagues and new partners will be able to find out about your past online and let’s be clear – not much printed about you in the media is going to make good reading!

What can you do about the so-called ‘Google-effect’?

In May 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that individuals should be able to request the deletion or removal of personal data published online where there was no compelling reason for it to remain. This is often referred to as ‘the right to be forgotten’. Following the ruling, Google (and other search engines) launched a system whereby individuals could request that information about them is removed from search results.

The evidence so far has shown that they will normally refuse your application all the time your conviction is unspent (under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974). That means you’ll have to wait at least a couple of years after release – for example, a 12 month prison sentence given to an adult becomes spent 4 years after the end of the full sentence.

Once spent, we would certainly recommend that you make an application to have the links removed. Even at this point, you’ll still need to outline why you believe the information about you is:

  • Irrelevant – You might want to highlight how it’s no longer necessary for you to disclose your conviction for the types of job you’re applying for; how you’re not a high profile figure and how you’re not a danger to the public. If you can, include evidence of how you’ve changed since your offence.
  • Inappropriate – This might include setting out the length of time since you were convicted; the effect it’s having on you and your family; how it affects your future job prospects and how it is generally having a disproportionate affect on your life.
  • Outdated or not in the public interest.

Other way’s of dealing with the problem

Regardless of the new system, many people with convictions continue to experience difficulties because of their convictions being printed online. This is especially so if you’ve just left prison.

One option you might want to consider is changing your name. Although this won’t get you away from your criminal record (for example, if an employer did a criminal record check then it would still appear if it’s unspent), it does prevent people from getting access to information that they wouldn’t otherwise be allowed to.

Another option to think about is trying to flood the internet with alternative, positive stories about yourself to ‘force down’ the reports that relate to your conviction. This could be something as simple as posting comments about articles you’ve read on different websites or being a bit more ambitious and starting a ‘blog on a topic that you’ve got an interest in.

What is Unlock doing to help?

Even once it’s spent, success in removing links to the information isn’t guaranteed. We’ve seen many cases refused. So we’ve been working with a law-firm specialising in this field to advise people with spent convictions on a ‘no win no fee’ basis. We’re taking a small number of claims forward, and the aim is to get a presumption that once it’s spent, it should be removed.

In the meantime, we’re working with employers to make sure that they don’t rely on information that can be found online, and instead encouraging them to have recruitment practices which give applicants the opportunity to explain their past in their own words.

 

We want to make sure that our website is as helpful as possible.

Letting us know if you easily found what you were looking for or not enables us to continue to improve our service for you and others.

Was it easy to find what you were looking for?

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