Bad policies and practices by employers

As part of our fair access to employment project, we work with employers to develop fair policies and practices and highlight good practice. We know that employers don’t always follow their own policy, and that sometimes decision making is subjective. We’re gathering evidence of bad practice and challenge this where we can – and we need your help to do this.

We want to hear your experiences of bad practice. In some cases, we will challenge employers directly. In other situations, we press for action to be taken by others including the DBS or the ICO. Where we’ve been successful in achieving changes in practice, we write the example up anonymously and post it on our website for employers to help employers learn where others have gone wrong. Ultimately, we want to see all employers operate fair and inclusive practices towards people with a criminal record.

Bad practice could include:

• Asking about spent convictions for a job that is covered by the ROA.
• Blanket policies of not recruiting people with unspent convictions
• A ban the box employer asking questions on application
• Carrying out DBS checks for roles not eligible for them
• Requesting applicants provide a copy of their ‘police record’ (also known as ‘enforced subject access’)
• Failing to give applicants an opportunity to explain their criminal record
• Sharing information about criminal records without your consent (for example in references)

Take a look at some of the examples we’ve posted on our website for employers.

What we need from you

If you have experience of bad practice by employers, contact us at policy@unlock.org.uk using the subject header ‘Call for evidence: bad practice’. Please include:

• Your name
• Contact details (email and telephone) and how you’d like us to contact you
• Details of your experience (please include the name of the employer and of any staff you spoke to, include emails/screenshots etc if possible)
• What you think should change.
•  Whether you’d be willing to take part in media coverage on this issue in future (this is for our reference only, we won’t share your details with others)

Any information you provide will be kept in line with our confidentiality policy. Any personal information provided to us will not be shared externally without your consent.

Find out more about how we handle your data.

Find out more about our work with employers.