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For people with criminal records
For people with criminal records

Tag: Basic criminal record checks

Were you given a compensation order in court? Remember to tell the DBS once it’s paid

Our helpline regularly receives contact from individuals concerned to find that a conviction they’d believed was spent under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 is still showing on their basic DBS certificate.

There are many reasons why this might be the case, but one of the things that our helpline advisors will ask is whether the person received a compensation order as part of their sentence.

Compensation orders only become spent once they’re paid in full. So, if you’ve not paid it, your conviction will still show on your basic check.

But, even when you have paid it, your conviction may still show on your basic DBS certificate. This is because there is currently no system in place which allows a court to update the DBS that an order has been settled in full. In practice, the onus is on you to provide proof of payment to the DBS when you apply for your basic check. (you don’t have to do this every time, just once).

The only time the DBS will consider a compensation order spent under the ROA without having any proof of payment from you is when it:

  1. was for an amount of less than £100 or
  2. is over 6 years old.

Let the DBS know you’ve paid the compensation order?

You’ll need to get proof that your order has been paid in full from the court where you were sentenced. Depending on the court, this may be in the form of a receipt or a letter. There isn’t usually a charge for this.

You should send a copy of this receipt/letter to the DBS either with your application or separately, in confidence, if your application is being submitted via a third party. Remember to quote your application barcode or reference number together with your name, address and date of birth in any correspondence.

Once they’ve received this, the DBS will be able to update their records and your conviction will no longer appear on your basic DBS certificate.

For more information

Finding out about your criminal record – Subject Access Requests and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

On the 25th May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) come into effect, changing the way that personal data is protected.

Your right to request information about your personal data will remain relatively unchanged. However, the previous fee of £10 for a Subject Access Request (SAR) has been abolished, meaning that SAR’s will now be free of charge.

So, with this in mind, if you want to find out what’s on your criminal record and what you need to disclose to an employer when applying for a job, what should you do?

You can either apply for:

  1. A basic Disclosure and Barring Service check
  2. A copy of your SAR

With SAR’s now being free of charge, you might assume that this is the best option available. However, it’s important to remember that what you see on your SAR will be different to what you’ll need to disclose to an employer. An SAR provides details of everything that’s held about you on the Police National Computer (PNC), it does not differentiate between spent and unspent convictions. If you’re not really careful you could easily find yourself disclosing too much to a potential employer.

You may be happy to go through your SAR and work out for yourself what’s spent and what’s not (you can use our disclosurecalculator to help you) but, if you would prefer to see exactly what an employer will see, then it’s always best to pay the £25 and apply for a basic check.

If you’re applying for jobs in the future that involve basic checks. In particular, if you think your conviction is spent and you’re planning not to disclose it to an employer.

  • If you’re applying for jobs involving standard/enhanced DBS checks.
  • If you want to know if something will be filtered and need to work it out.
  • If you want to find out what information the police hold about you.

For more information

  1. For practical self-help information – More information is available on police records – subject access requests and basic DBS checks
  2. Questions – If you have any questions about this, you can contact our helpline.

Step-by-step guide to applying for a basic DBS check

From early January 2018, the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) started carrying out basic criminal record checks.

Following an application made by a member of the Unlock team, we’ve produced a new step-by-step guide to applying directly to the DBS for a basic check using their online self-service channel.

We’re interested in hearing from anybody that’s had any specific problems when applying online for their basic DBS check so that we can feed these issues back to the DBS. You can email us with this at feedback@unlock.org.uk.

For more information

For practical self-help information – More information is available on:

Questions – If you have any questions about this, you can contact our helpline.

 

Basic criminal record checks launched today by the DBS

From today, the 17th January 2018, basic criminal record checks can now be obtained directly from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)

This is a significant development for both people with criminal records and employers in England & Wales.

Basic checks are a type of criminal record check that can be used by employers and other organisations, for example when they are recruiting staff. They can also be used by insurance companies in validating claims. Basic checks show any ‘unspent’ criminal records (as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974). Once a conviction or caution is ‘spent’, it no longer shows on a basic check.

Commenting on the news, Christopher Stacey, co-director of Unlock, said:

“We cautiously welcome today’s news. A basic check from the DBS is long overdue, and it should help to make the system clearer, ensuring that employers carry out the appropriate levels of checks instead of carrying out standard or enhanced checks which can often be unlawful.

“However, we’re concerned about a number of aspects to the way the DBS plan to operate basic checks, including allowing them to be sent directly to an employer. This runs the risk of employers being sent information that they’re not entitled to see, and is why this practice was reversed in 2012 for standard and enhanced checks. We’ve raised these concerns with both the DBS and the Home Office, but for the time being we’re advising any individual that thinks they have a spent conviction to make sure they apply for a basic check directly from the DBS and get it sent to their home address.”

On a practical level, we’ve developed a landing page dedicated to basic DBS checks as a one-stop-shop for the latest information, advice and updates. It’s been written primarily for people with convictions, but with employers and others in mind too, covering things like:

  1. How to get a basic check
  2. Should the check be sent to the applicant or the employer?
  3. What are eCertificates & eResults?
  4. Our advice for individuals
  5. Our advice to employers

Why is this important?

  1. It’s been a long time coming – The introduction of basic checks has been in the business plan of the DBS since 2002 (back when it was the CRB, the Criminal Records Bureau).
  2. It’s highly likely to mean an overall increase in criminal record checks – The DBS is anticipating around 1.7 million basic checks in the first year. This compares to just under 1.2 million in 2015/16 when it was done by Disclosure Scotland.
  3. It means criminal record checks will be available online – The basic DBS check will be available in both paper form and online. The setting up of an online account (for both applicants and organisations) will allow access to what are referred to as “eCertificates”.
  4. It makes the type of DBS check being done even more important – Employers often refer to a role “involving a DBS check”. Up until now, reference to “a DBS check” could be taken as code for meaning a standard or enhanced check, which meant the disclosure of cautions and convictions, even once spent. Now, with the DBS doing a basic level check, it’s even more important that employers explain what type of check a specific role involves to make sure that applicants clearly understand what they need to disclose.
  5. It’ll hopefully reduce ineligible checks – We’ve been cautiously encouraging the introduction of basic checks as a key part of how to reduce the numbers of employers carrying out levels of checks (i.e. standard or enhanced checks) for roles that are not eligible for them.

We expect to learn more about the day-to-day practices of basic checks in the coming days, weeks and months. As we learn more, we’ll do our best to reflect this in our guidance.

For more information, and the latest details, visit our information page on basic DBS checks.

Basic DBS checks are coming soon – find out more here

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) is introducing basic criminal record checks for people in England & Wales. This replaces the service previously provided by Disclosure Scotland.

This is a significant development for both people with criminal records and employers in England & Wales, so we’ve developed a new landing page dedicated to basic DBS checks as a one-stop-shop for the latest information, advice and updates. It’s been written primarily for people with convictions, but with employers and others in mind too, covering things like:

  1. How to get a basic check
  2. Should the check be sent to the applicant or the employer?
  3. What are eCertificates & eResults?
  4. Our advice for individuals
  5. Our advice to employers

Basic checks are a type of criminal record check that can be used by employers and other organisations, for example when they are recruiting staff. They can also be used by insurance companies in validating claims. Basic checks show any ‘unspent’ criminal records (as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974). Once a conviction or caution is ‘spent’, it no longer shows on a basic check.

Why is this important?

  1. It’s been a long time coming – The introduction of basic checks has been in the business plan of the DBS since 2002 (back when it was the CRB, the Criminal Records Bureau).
  2. It’s highly likely to mean an overall increase in criminal record checks – The DBS is anticipating around 1.7 million basic checks in the first year. This compares to just under 1.2 million in 2015/16 when it was done by Disclosure Scotland.
  3. It means criminal record checks will be available online – The basic DBS check will be available in both paper form and online. The setting up of an online account (for both applicants and organisations) will allow access to what are referred to as “eCertificates”.
  4. It makes the type of DBS check being done even more important – Employers often refer to a role “involving a DBS check”. Up until now, reference to “a DBS check” could be taken as code for meaning a standard or enhanced check, which meant the disclosure of cautions and convictions, even once spent. Now, with the DBS doing a basic level check, it’s even more important that employers explain what type of check a specific role involves to make sure that applicants clearly understand what they need to disclose.
  5. It’ll hopefully reduce ineligible checks – We’ve been cautiously encouraging the introduction of basic checks as a key part of how to reduce the numbers of employers carrying out levels of checks (i.e. standard or enhanced checks) for roles that are not eligible for them.

What is happening and when?

From 1st September 2017, the DBS will begin processing basic criminal record check applications.

There will be a transition phase between 1st September and 31st December, where basic checks will still be available from Disclosure Scotland too. After the 31st December 2017, basic checks will no longer be available to applicants in England & Wales from Disclosure Scotland.

To start with, the basic check service from DBS will be open to a small number of large registered organisations. This will be followed by an online process for individuals, expected to be from 1st January 2018.

Disclosure Scotland will continue to process basic check applications for people in Scotland.

We’re waiting for more information from the DBS about the exact timescales, and once we have these, they’ll be on this page.

We’re expecting the DBS to publish its own online guidance on basic checks soon. Once it’s available, we’ll link to it from here.

For more information

The information in this post is likely to develop over time. For more information, and the latest details, visit our information page on basic DBS checks.

 

Latest news about the Disclosure and Barring Service

Over the course of the next 12 months the Disclosure and Barring Service are planning to introduce several changes that might be important to people with convictions.

Basic criminal record checks

From autumn 2017, you will be able to apply to the DBS for a basic criminal record check if you live or work in England or Wales.

These checks are currently managed by Disclosure Scotland who will continue to process them for anyone living or working in Scotland.

A basic criminal record check shows unspent cautions and convictions and is used by many employers as part of their recruitment process. If you’re self-employed you can apply for a basic check for yourself.

There’ll be more details on this over the next couple of months, and we’ll post these under the basic tag.

Standard and enhanced criminal record checks

The DBS intend to introduce online standard and enhanced checks which will allow employers and organisations to:

  • Create an online account with the DBS
  • Manage DBS applications online
  • Track the progress of DBS applications online and do status checks

Standard and enhanced checks show spent and unspent convictions (other than those which are eligible for filtering), plus additional information that the police may hold.

You can use the DBS eligibility tool to establish which criminal record check is right for the job you’re applying for.

DBS compliance visits

The DBS will soon be starting a programme of work which will involve assessing the levels of compliance for all Registered Bodies (RB’s). By using responses to self assessment questionnaires and data from applications that have been submitted, together with inspection visits Registered Bodies who are non-compliant will be identified.

The DBS state that they will provide support and guidance to those non-compliant RB’s, but will take steps to suspend or cancel RB’s who are unable to comply with the obligations set out in the DBS Code of Practice.

Hopefully, this will mean that we will see less RB’s requesting ineligible checks which can result in an RB receiving information they are not legally entitled to see and possibly an applicant being inappropriately investigated for trying to work in an activity they are barred from.

If you’ve come across an organisation that you believe has carried out an ineligible check please let us know by emailing advice@unlock.org.uk with the details.

For more information

  1. For practical self-help information – More information is available on our criminal record checks for employment section.
  2. Questions – If you have any questions about this, you can contact our helpline.
  3. Policy – Read about the policy work we’re doing on stopping unlawful/ineligible DBS checks.

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