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.
This toolkit provides specific guidance for when you might want or need to challenge or appeal decisions made with regards to criminal records. It covers various situations, some of which only relate to employment and recruitment processes; where advice is not universal, this will be noted. The advice provided is general and intended to be used as an introduction to the issues concerned. In many cases, it may be useful to contact our helpline to discuss any specific situation you find yourself in, as our advisors can provide advice tailored to your needs.
Our website provides a wide range of information on issues that you may face with regards to criminal records. This is the best starting point to consider issues regarding criminal records and how employers and other organisations might treat this information, and whether they should even have access to it in the first place. You can also contact our helpline for further advice and support if the information our website does not sufficiently answer your queries. Our team of advisors can be contacted by phone, Whatsapp or online.
Whilst Unlock seeks to offer advice here, on our website and via our helpline, it should be noted that the advice we offer is not legal advice. We have compiled some useful links on this topic if this is something you wish to explore.
Should you have any feedback about this toolkit, please contact policy@unlock.org.uk. We are keen to ensure that this toolkit is as useful as possible and remains up to date, so any feedback is welcome to support this.
Besides the Unlock website, there is also more general information available online. This toolkit has more detailed information on each of the following, in addition to other issues.
