Type: Unlock General

Criminal Records Bill receives its first reading in House of Lords

Lord Ramsbotham’s Private Members’ Bill on amending the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 has today had its First Reading in the House of Lords.

The Bill, which would shorten the rehabilitation periods that apply under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (ROA), proposes a number of changes. One of the most significant elements is that sentences of over 4 years in prison would become spent 4 years after the end of the full sentence.

Second reading – the general debate on all aspects of the Bill – is yet to be scheduled.

More information

You can follow the progress of the Bill on the Parliament website.
You can find out more information about our work to get further reform to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.
There is practical information on how the law currently operates on our information site.

Monthly update – June 2017

We’ve just published our update for June 2017.

This months update includes:

Some new information setting out how to apply to a court to end a court order
Updated information on applying to university in particular, advice on appealing a university’s decision if you’ve been refused a place as a result of your criminal record
A personal story on securing a job as a probation officer with a criminal record
A link to a discussion on how a previous employer disclosed details of a spent conviction in a reference to a new employer
Details of an online survey set up to collect evidence of the barriers people face in dealing with a criminal record they got as a young adult.

The full update provides a summary of:

the latest updates to our self-help information site for people with convictions
recent posts to our online magazine, theRecord
discussions on our online forum
other news and developments that might be of interest to individuals with a criminal record

Read the June 2017 update in full

Best wishes,

Unlock

Notes

All previous updates can be found in full in the ‘Latest updates‘ section of our Information Hub
For more self-help information, please visit unlock.devchd.com/information-and-advice/
If you have any questions about this information, please contact our helpline
If you’ve been forwarded this email, you can sign up to receive these updates directly by clicking here and selecting to receive ‘News/updates for people with convictions’
If you have found this information useful, please leave us your feedback and/or consider making a donation.

Rehabilitation in the internet age – The Google-effect and the disclosure of criminal records

The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 provides people with criminal records protection from discrimination once their criminal record becomes ‘spent’.

In an article for the Probation Journal, published this month, Christopher Stacey highlights how media reports are increasingly available online and often mean spent convictions continue to be accessible to employers and others.

However, he also looks at a landmark case in 2014 that established a ‘right to be forgotten’, which enables people to ask for search results to be delisted from internet search engines. He examines to what extent this helps people with convictions.

The article is available to read and/or download from the Probation Journal

Monthly update – May 2017

We’ve just published our update for May 2017.

This months update includes:

Some new information setting out details of the non-police organisations that have access to the Police National Computer
An advice post which highlights the impact that an unspent conviction will have on any compensation claim made under the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme
A personal view on the Ofsted waiver application process if you have been disqualified by association
A link to a discussion on the eligibility of an enhanced DBS check if you are working in an office
Details of the Court of Appeal ruling on the DBS filtering regime.

The full update provides a summary of:

the latest updates to our self-help information site for people with convictions
recent posts to our online magazine, theRecord
discussions on our online forum
other news and developments that might be of interest to individuals with a criminal record

Read the May 2017 update in full

Best wishes,

Unlock

Notes

All previous updates can be found in full in the ‘Latest updates‘ section of our Information Hub
For more self-help information, please visit unlock.devchd.com/information-and-advice/
If you have any questions about this information, please contact our helpline
If you’ve been forwarded this email, you can sign up to receive these updates directly by clicking here and selecting to receive ‘News/updates for people with convictions’
If you have found this information useful, please leave us your feedback and/or consider making a donation.

Conservative Party commit in manifesto to encourage employers to recruit people with convictions

The Conservative Party has included a commitment in their 2017 manifesto that aims to encourage and support employers to take on people with convictions.

It states:

“We will also work to help those groups who have in the past found it difficult to get employment, by incentivising employers to take them on. So for businesses employing…those who have committed a crime but who have repaid their debt to society…we will offer a holiday on their employers’ National Insurance Contributions for a full year”

An extract of the manifesto is below:

You can download the Conservative Manifesto 2017.

We recently called on the next government to pilot tax incentives to encourage employers.

Please help us unlock funding so that we can help more people

In the last year, our Information Hub website was used over 1.3 million times and we received feedback saying:

“Totally anonymous way of accessing important information in relation to a spent conviction and disclosure. Extremely helpful and reassuring. Sincere thanks.”

“Your site has made it clear to me what the law is… and how best to challenge it if I think it’s wrong… I am now in a position to know my rights and what to do.”

We are pleased that the website has been useful, but we think some people are missing vital, relevant information – especially because people don’t know what they don’t know so can’t possibly know what to look for!

We need £6500 to improve the way people find information on the website. We want to make it so that you can search for your situation (e.g living with an unspent conviction) and find all the information you need.

We are delighted to announce that independent funder J Leon Philanthropy has guaranteed to provide half of what we need. Will you help fund the rest? Please, please donate what you can through our Big Give page and help us help more people to move on with their lives.

Other ways you can donate

Text UNLK25 with the amount you wish to donate (e.g. £10) to 70070.

You can send a cheque, payable to ‘Unlock’, to Unlock, MCSC, 39-48 Marsham Street, Maidstone, Kent, ME14 1HH

Or you can set up a standing order – please contact debbie.young@unlock.org.uk for more details.

Huge thanks and very best wishes,

The Unlock team

We’ve made some improvements to our disclosure calculator

Between April 2016 and March 2017 our disclosure calculator was used by over 50,000 people who were looking to find out if and when their caution/conviction would become spent under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

Although we’re delighted to see so many people using the tool, it makes it even more important that we’re constantly looking at ways of improving it.

With more people being given relevant orders as part of their court disposals (for example, sexual harm prevention orders, hospital orders and restraining orders), some of which run indefinitely, it was important that there was a way for a user to reflect this when using the tool.

So we’ve recently worked with the programmer who helped us develop the tool to make a few improvements. In particular, we’ve:

Added a ‘tick box’ which allows users to record an indefinite relevant order. This is important, because an indefinite order will mean that a conviction remains unspent until such time as it is given an end date. This usually means going back to court to have the order amended or revoked.
Added a specific sentence/disposal of “Sexual harm prevention order (formerly sexual offence prevention order)”. We’d received feedback from some users who had not chosen “Relevant order” (which is what those disposals come under) so we thought it would make it clearer for these to be a standalone option to add.

If you have any suggestions for further improvements, please email your thoughts through to advice@unlock.org.uk.

Volunteer’s Week is almost here

It’s Volunteer’s Week from the 1st to 7th June and, like many organisations across the country, we’ll be holding celebrations to say thank you to our volunteers, recognising the important contribution they make.

During 2016/17 our 6 office-based volunteers provided over 3000 hours of help and support to individuals who contacted our helpline. They not only provided a wide range of information and advice but, on many occasions listened to people getting things off their chest and talking about what might have been a very distressing experience.

Our volunteers perform a range of tasks but essentially they:

Bring a range of qualities, skills and expertise which we don’t always get from the staff in our team – for example specialist language skills and cultural understanding
Help us to engage with some hard to reach individuals by using their own personal experiences
Enrich our organisation by bringing diversity
Can turn into a member of our staff!

In return, we provide plenty of opportunities for social inclusion (we’re a really welcoming bunch), skills development and potential routes into employment.

So, if you’ve been thinking about volunteering, what better time than now to take the plunge?

Find out more about the roles we have available by taking a look at our ‘Get Involved‘ page.

Government loses criminal records disclosure appeal

The Court of Appeal has rejected the Government’s appeal to a decision of the High Court, which ruled that the criminal records disclosure scheme was disproportionate and unlawful.

Reporting on the news, The Law Society Gazette said that the government will have to go back to the drawing board. In the article, Christopher Stacey of Unlock explained that the charity is contacted by thousands of people every year because they are being unnecessarily anchored to their past as a result of a criminal record disclosure system and DBS filtering process which is blunt, restrictive and disproportionate. You can read the full article here.

Personnel Today also reported that the government will have to rethink the criminal record disclosure rules following the defeat. Featuring in their article, Christopher Stacey urged the next Government to take immediate steps to respond to the ruling by reforming the criminal records system. You can read the full article here.Christopher also featured on Sky News where he welcomed the Court of Appeal’s decision.

Families of prisoners pay high insurance premiums and face more refusals

An article in the Independent reports that families of offenders face higher premiums and even flat refusals when it comes to getting insurance.

The article quotes a report by Unlock, which revealed that 37 per cent of the calls made to its helpline related to insurance.

It also revealed a startling issue; that many families of prisoners and former prisoners did not know that they had to declare the situation to their insurer. You can read the full article here.