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For people with criminal records
For people with criminal records

Type: Advice Update

Successes in getting visas to travel to the US

As part of our attempts to make sure this Hub reflects the genuine experiences of people with convictions, we want to make sure that were highlighting some key examples which we think are relevant to people making use of this site

One particular update that we’ve made today is to include a couple of positive experiences that we’ve had reported to us, where people have been granted a visa to travel to the US.

We have updated the Travelling to America section, but have copied their experiences below;

“I received a caution for possession of a controlled substance (Class A) in 2009. By mid-2010, I had applied for and been granted a visa which was valid for 10 years. I went suited and booted and they just asked me whether I was still misusing drugs. I think possession is extremely minor in the spectrum of drugs-related offences”

“I had visa interview this morning (Paris Embassy) and was granted. Passport coming back end of week. My record – 2 arrests – 1 caution for D&D in 2005, 1 for ABH in 2010 which resulted in 10-week tag, 260 hours community service, £400 fine from Magistrates.

I applied for B1/B2 visa from US Embassy in Paris, as currently at university in France. Filled in standard visa application, whereby I declared both caution and conviction. I also got ACPO certificate but this is not mandatory for visas from France. Booked appointment online, and turned up with confirmation of payment, Stamped Addressed Envelope, photos, etc.

Arrived at 0730 (smartly dressed in suit and tie!), given a number, and gave all docs for registration. about 20 mins later, was called to a screen with US immigration officer. There was no private room, just a rank of booths not unlike a bank branch. She asked me what I was doing in France, what I wanted to go to the US for, and how was I going to finance it. I gave her a copy of my uni course confirmation, and my bank statements.

She then asked me to give more detail about the 2 arrests / convictions which I did, and also handed over the ACPO certificate. After she tapped away on a computer for a bit, she then said “I just have to go and check something”, and 5 minutes later she came back and said, “Everything is fine, and you’ll get your passport back with the visa in 2-3 days”.

Total time at Embassy – 1 hour. Obviously there will be some minor procedural differences between Paris and London, but the key takeaway is that the system can work, and the bureaucracy not be so bad. Clearly it’s not all quite there, as I won’t believe the final hurdle is overcome until I set foot on American soil. It’s a major weight off my mind, however.”

 

Launch of unlock.devchd.com/information-and-advice/

Today, we’re announcing the launch of unlock.devchd.com/information-and-advice/, our brand new online Information Hub. It aims to be the country’s most comprehensive source of online self-help information on wide range of issues that criminal convictions can affect.

The site builds on the information we’ve had on our main website for a number of years. We’ve wanted to establish a self-help information site specifically for people with convictions. We’re also working on a new main website for the charity, and this will be launched shortly. You may also notice that we’ve also created a new ‘look’, which is shown in our new logo on this site.

Through the Hub, people with convictions will now have access to easy-to-use information that is specifically designed for them. Given the way that we work as a charity, we believe it is critically important that individuals, and those that work with them, have access to accurate, reliable, up to date information on issues that affect them because of their convictions. This will be backed up by our confidential peer advice helpline.

Hopefully, the site is much more user friendly and easier to navigate. For those who want to familiarise themselves with the site, please see the user guide.

In short, the Hub is made up of three main areas;

Knowledge base

This section is the main part of the site. The Knowledge Base contains details information, advice and experiences relating to specific areas of life that a criminal conviction can impact on. It is broken down into different sections.

Frequently asked questions

This section is regularly updated and is designed to provide specific advice to specific situations, based on the kinds of questions that we receive from people who have used the Hub but have further questions about their own situation.

Latest updates

This section provides a summary of the latest updates to the site. You can also sign up to receive updates by email so that you are sent the details of the updates as and when they happen.

Feedback

We hope you like the site. Now that it’s been launched, we’re trying to get as much feedback as possible, so that we can continue to develop and improve it. Please let us know what you like, what you don’t like, and what you think can be improved. Click the link below to leave your feedback.

feedback

Further delays to changes to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974

Please see below an update that we have received from the Ministry of Justice late last week regarding planned changes to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

Although we’re disappointed to bring you this news, we felt it was important to provide an update as soon as we knew that the situation had formally changed. This will not come as a surprise to some – the lack of an update from Government has led many people to rightly question whether the changes were going to come in by November. A thread has been running on our forum since January this year, questioning originally whether the changes were going to come in by Spring 2013.

Sadly, while it’s frustrating that it is no longer going to be November, the situation is undoubtedly made worse by the lack of a specific future date. To put it simply, although they are optimistic that they will be able to put an end to the uncertainty on the date of commencement fairly soon, they are still unable to give a definite timetable.

In our view, the combination of a delay plus the lack of a specific delay is unforgivable. When the initial reforms were passed in April 2012, a 12 month window was given to allow the Government time to get the necessary systems in place. The initial implementation date of Spring 2013 led to many people planning their lives on these changes. Our Helpline has been inundated with enquiries ever since from people who are desperately waiting for the changes to come in.

We are continuing to do all that we can so that the Government implement the reforms as soon as possible. We are urging the Government to announce a specific date for when the changes will be introduced. We are also meeting with MP’s with an interest on this issue to see what can be done to speed up this process.

To help, we encourage anybody who is personally affected by these delays, or feels passionately about the way this is being managed by Government, to write to their MP and ask them to raise this issue as a matter of priority with the Ministers of State for both the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice. You can encourage your MP’s office to contact us directly if they want to help in some way. Ultimately, it’s important that the Government realise how important these changes are, and how many peoples’ lives are being put on hold by these delays. However, the difficulty at this stage is in finding practical ways in which this process can influenced.

Update from the Ministry of Justice

Whilst the Government was aiming to commence the reforms by November this is not going to be possible but it remains committed to seeing these reforms in place, which will to the benefit of many ex-offenders, and it will give a firm timetable on commencement as soon as it can. As you know, the critical prerequisite for the commencement of the reforms is to put in place a system for producing basic disclosure certificates, which show unspent convictions, reflecting the new rehabilitation periods in England and Wales. Until we do that there would be no way for an individual to obtain an official statement of their unspent convictions under the new rules.

Currently, basic disclosures reflecting the existing rehabilitation periods are available from Disclosure Scotland and this service is provided to residents of England and Wales as well as Scotland. However, the reforms to the ROA only revise rehabilitation periods for England and Wales, leaving the position in Scotland unchanged under its legislation. This complicates matters and creates two different rehabilitation regimes within Great Britain.

One option to address this situation is to agree with Disclosure Scotland that they will provide two differential basic disclosure services, one reflecting the rules in Scotland and the other the rules in England and Wales. Another option is for the Disclosure and Barring Service to initiate a basic disclosure service for England and Wales which adheres to the reformed rules in this jurisdiction. Neither of these options is straightforward and there are significant business and technical issues to work through. However, the Government expects these issues to be resolved shortly.”

Questions?

If you have any questions about this information, please contact us.
If you’d like to discuss this information with others, there is a specific thread on our online forum.

New guide – Unlocking Criminal Record Checks

On a daily basis, our helpline gets calls from people who are applying for work and don’t know where they stand because of criminal record checks that (increasingly) employers are carrying out.

A couple of years ago, we approached the DBS (Disclosure & Barring Service – known as the CRB at that time) and raised this as a matter of concern. They agreed to support the production of a guide, specifically for people with a criminal record, designed to explain in detail the criminal record checking process, with particular focus on the specific issues that people with a criminal record might face.

The result is a detailed guide which was written by Unlock and which was circulated by the DBS (it was announced in DBS News September 2013). Download the guide here or click the image below.

unlockingcriminalrecordchecks

For Unlock, this guide represents a number of things:

  • The DBS has recognised people with a criminal record as being a particular audience, and have responded by supporting the production and circulation of this guide
  • During the writing of the guide, Unlock asked a number of questions of the DBS about their processes, and in a number of respects, the DBS have responded by working to improve aspects of their process
  • In particular, the guide shines a light on the process of ‘eligibility’. The Establish Eligibility Process Flow-chart (page 19) sets out a clear and detailed process for individuals to follow if they believe that an employer might be asking for the wrong level of criminal record check. It also documents the specific ‘Eligibility query’ process that the DBS has in place to respond to concerns around eligibility from individuals
  • It provides a starting point by which evidence can be collected about how employers and the DBS are dealing with eligibility issues

Since the guide was published, we’ve already started getting feedback from people. A couple of examples include:

People asking questions of employers:

I went into Human Resources and asked why they were asking for enhanced checks. They wasn’t sure, and once I pointed out that a basis disclosure could be used, they were happy to accept this, and changed their policy as a result. Given my criminal record is spent, it means I don’t have to resign, which I feel I would have had to do otherwise”

People using the DBS’s ‘Eligibility query’ process:

My employer was insisting on an enhanced level check for a job working as a door-to-door salesman. I tried to talk to them, but they wouldn’t listen, so I didn’t have any other option but to consent to the check. Following Unlock’s guidance, I raised a query with the DBS, and they looked into it. The outcome of this was that the DBS wrote to my employer saying that they didn’t think that the position was eligible, and that they should do a basic level check. Result!”

This guide is an important first step, but there is still a long way to go to ensure that employers are carrying out the correct level of checks and at the right time.

We’re keen to get your feedback on this guide, and in particular if you’ve tried to make use of the advice contained it in, either in your dealings with an employer or in raising an eligibility query with the DBS.

To go alongside this guide, we’ve also recently published two articles that will help people with convictions understand a bit more about dealing with their criminal record in the world of work:

  • ‘Ways to find out about your criminal record’ available here
  • ‘Disclosing your convictions to employers’ available here

Questions?

If you have any questions about this information, please contact us.
If you’d like to discuss this information with others, there is a specific thread on our online forum.

DBS Update Service and One Certificate

Today, we’ve published a brief guide which explains some of the changes that the DBS has introduced this week.

The Update Service is a new subscription service lets you keep your DBS certificate up-to-date so you can take it with you when you move jobs or roles. The employer can then carry out free, online, instant checks to see if any new information has come to light since the certificate’s issue – this is called a ‘status check’.

To coincide with launching the Update Service, the DBS will now only issue certificates to you; they’ll no longer send a copy to the Registered Body. This change is being referred to as ‘One Certificate’. Employers will now need to ask you for sight of your DBS Certificate.

The guide we’ve put together discusses some of the issues and questions that people with convictions are likely to be interested in, including some of the benefits and potential downsides to these changes.

Read the guide we’ve published here.

Questions?

If you have any questions about this information, please contact us.

If you’d like to discuss this information with others, there is a specific thread on our online forum.

 

Changes to insurance disclosure

The reason for this update is to let you know of some changes to insurance disclosure, which came into force in April 2013, which should help many people with convictions. We updated the guidance on our website at the time, but to raise awareness of this, we thought we’d send around an e-update as well!

For many years, people with convictions have found themselves in a difficult situation when purchasing insurance. This is because of archaic insurance law dating back to the Marine Insurance Act 1906, which imposed heavy duties on all consumers to disclose all material facts, even if the insurer didn’t ask about them specifically. If you failed to guess what the insurer wanted to know, your claim could be rejected.

In 2008, the Law Commission consulted on whether the law should be changed. Unlock made a submission which highlighted the problems that the law caused for people with convictions. Following this consultation, the Law Commission recommended a change in the law. Unlock, along with a number of other consumer organisations (including Age UK, Consumer Focus and Which?), worked hard to push the Government to change the law. This was successful in March 2012, when the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012 received Royal Assent.

The Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representation) Act 2012 came into force on 6th April 2013. It removes the duty on consumers to volunteer ‘material facts’ if about certain convictions (e.g. non-motoring convictions). Previously, you had to disclose all unspent criminal convictions, regardless of whether you were asked about them. This is no longer the case.
The onus now sits squarely with the insurer to ask you the questions that they want to know information about. Instead of a duty to volunteer material facts, now the law requires you to answer the questions that are put to you fully and accurately. You need to “take reasonable care”, and one of the factors that will be taken into account is whether the questions asked by the insurer were clear and specific.

For more information

We’ve published a guide on the changes to insurance disclosure. We’ve also updated our simple and detailed guides, as well as updating our list of insurance brokers and list of motor insurers. As always, all of this can be downloaded from the insurance section of our website.

Can you help us improve our lists?

Since these changes have come in, some insurers have changed the questions they ask. Some mainstream motor insurers, for example, have started asking about non-motoring convictions, meaning we’ve had to take them off our specific list of motor insurers that didn’t ask about non-motoring convictions.

However, there are many other insurers that ask quite specific questions about convictions (e.g. convictions in the last 5 years). For these insurers, even if your conviction is unspent, if it was after this period, you do not need to disclose.

As a result, we’re in the process of reviewing our list of motor insurers, to identify more mainstream companies that do not ask about certain convictions. We’re also looking to produce a similar list of home insurers, providing details of companies that ask quite specific questions. If you come across any specific insurers that you think should be included in either of these, please let us know by emailing the details to advice@unlock.org.uk.

DBS start filtering cautions and convictions

As some of you may have seen from the news, the Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) has started, as of yesterday, a process of ‘filtering’ for cautions and convictions held on the Police National Computer.

Today, we’ve published our own detailed guide on how the DBS filtering rules will work. This can be viewed here.

Although we’ve known this has been coming for quite a few weeks now, it wasn’t until last week that we found out exactly when it would be coming into force. It wasn’t until yesterday when, along with everybody else, we got a chance to see the guidance that the DBS had written and, in particular, saw the full list of offences that are exempt from filtering.

We’ve written a lot about this issue in recent years (see more here). Unfortunately, the filtering process that the Government has introduced doesn’t go far enough in lots of ways. However, based on the calls our Helpline has been receiving in the last couple of days, it is certainly going to help some people, and for those people, it could mean the difference between getting refused the role they’ve applied for, and finally getting an opportunity to prove themselves. We will continue to argue that the system should go much further, to ensure that genuinely law-abiding people with convictions are able to reach their potential.

In the meantime, after having chance to digest the DBS guidance, alongside the list of offences, and the numerous questions we’ve asked of Government in recent weeks, we’ve published a detailed guide on the DBS filtering process. We hope that this information will help you to understand whether the process will help you in your own situation; we’ve tried to put together a number of questions that should help, as well as frequently asked questions and some examples.

It is going to take some time for people to understand this process. In particular, it’s likely that employers will be confused about what it means for them and their recruitment. On top of many other changes being made to the DBS process, this represents an unprecedented level of uncertainty about how the DBS process operates. We will continue, as always, to try to help people with convictions better understand the system as best as we can.

If you have any questions about this information, please contact us.
If you’d like to discuss this information with others, there is a specific thread on our online forum.

Delays to reforms to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974

We’re disappointed to announce that this morning we’ve received notification from the Government that the changes to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, due to come into force in Spring 2013, have been delayed. The Ministry of Justice provided us with the following:
“As you know, the commencement of the reforms are dependent on the necessary system changes being in place so that basic disclosure certificates for England and Wales will reflect the new rehabilitation periods. We had been aiming to commence the reforms by April 2013, however, it will not be possible to achieve the necessary system changes by that date and we are now looking at commencement in November.”
We know from the hundreds of enquiries we’ve had from people with convictions over the last couple of months how critical these reforms are; they will have a significant and positive difference on thousands of people who struggle to move on with their lives.
We continue to urge the government to introduce the reforms as soon as possible, and we encourage anybody who is affected by these delays to write to their MP and ask for their support in helping to speed up the process. However, it has been made clear to us that Ministers remain keen to introduce the reforms, and that the reasons behind the delay lay at a technical/operational level. More information about the changes to the ROA are available here.

Filtering old and minor convictions – The effect of the Court of Appeal case of T

In response to the recent Court of Appeal ruling regards criminal record checks, we’ve produced an Information Hub document which summarises the case, and looks at the implications.

We’ve also added a detailed FAQ-style section, which hopefully answers some of the common queries that we’ve been receiving in recent weeks.

Download the information here.

Immigration and nationality decisions are now exempt from the ROA

As of the 1st October 2012, changes made through the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (s.140 in particular) mean that immigration or nationality decision making, including initial decisions and any subsequent proceedings, are exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. This means that spent convictions can also be considered as part of these processes. This includes convictions obtained before October 2012.

It does not, however, affect any proceedings which began before October 2012 (or decisions made but not finally determined).

Please note: At the time of writing, the UKBA’s website has yet to be amended to reflect the above changes, and hence references to the ROA still remain in our own information above. This will be amended in due course, in line with changes to the UKBA website. It is possible, for example, that the UKBA will set their own guidelines for disregarding certain convictions. Check out our Coming to the UK section for the last information.

All these changes mean is that the UKBA now has the freedom to take into account spent convictions. The UKBA are yet to publish their own guidelines on how they intend to put this possibility into operation.

A useful article on this change is available from the Immigration Lawyers Gherson.

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