Summary of updates – November 2014

Here’s a summary of the updates that we’ve made recently to our Information Hub.

About Criminal Records

• The ACPO Criminal Records Office have recently launched a new on-line application system for Subject Access Requests. ACRO provides subject access disclosures from the Police National Computer on behalf of most police forces in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, Jersey and the Isle of Man. To make an on-line application, visit the ACRO website.
• We have updated our information on what to be aware of if you have a ‘No Live Trace’ on a police certificates.

Applying for work

• We have made available two videos on disclosing convictions to employers. One, entitled ‘Making your past pay’ was produced in association with Staffordshire and West Midlands CRC and the second follows one man’s journey whilst looking for employment and the consequences of his choices around disclosure.

Specific occupations and professions

• We’ve received many enquiries from people looking to train as driving instructors. There seems to be conflicting advice from training providers as to who is eligible to join the Approved Driving Instructors Register and this information page provides a link to the Government eligibility wizard which details whether an individual would be eligible to join and how to apply.

The Google Effect

• We have been asking users of our Information Hub to provide us with evidence of any successes they have had in getting Google to remove search results. We have recently become aware of an individual who has had links to his spent conviction for shoplifting removed by Google. Further information can be found here.
• If your conviction is still unspent and/or a request to have search results removed by Google has been declined, you might find that your details of Google can cause you problems. You could try creating your own positive web content to try and suppress the negatives. There’s some information on ways to go about this on our Counteracting negative ‘Google’ entries page.

Travel

• Following feedback from clients we have updated our travelling to South America and travelling to Asia pages in particular, highlighting countries whose landing/entry cards do not ask about criminal convictions.

In other news….Unlock wins an award!

• We’re delighted to announce that at the recent 2014 Helpline Partnership Conference, Unlock was awarded first prize in the ‘Best innovative use of technology’ category. This was, in part, because of our Information Hub. Explaining the reason for the award, the judges commented “The combination of offline and on-line technology bring together an accessible and impressive support package.” Read more about the award here.