Introducing the Take Action Toolkit

At Unlock, we believe people want to lead a positive life and that when opportunity unleashes their potential they contribute great things. We recognise the long-term disadvantage of criminal records, impacting on individuals and their families, organisations and communities, and society. As such, we provide advice and support for individuals regarding their criminal records, and advocate for them and for change to the system to promote fairness.

We know the criminal record system can be unhelpfully complicated. This means that sometimes you may want more information about a particular situation. We also know that because of that complexity, mistakes can be made by those trying to apply the system. As such, there are a lot of situations where you might want to challenge decisions made relating to your criminal record.

To this end, we have developed the Take Action Toolkit. The aim is to put in one place a useful range of information to support people with criminal records should they wish to challenge elements of their criminal record or decisions taken on the basis of it. It is designed to complement our confidential helpline service.

The Take Action Toolkit is a digital guide designed to offer advice and guidance for people, in various situations relating to criminal records, wishing to appeal decisions or challenge information. The toolkit is designed to support our information and advice pages by offering general guidance relating to a variety of situations where someone may wish to gather more information about their criminal record or appeal against a decision taken by an employer or other body.

The toolkit covers areas such as:

• understanding your criminal record
• what to do in the case of ineligible checks
• how to seek removal of information from a record
• how to appeal having been placed on a barring list
• information about issues such as data protection and media

One thing the toolkit is not designed to do, however, is to support someone in appealing against a conviction.

We hope that the toolkit helps people with criminal records to ensure that they are treated fairly.