LAW ENFORCEMENT
Minor offences wiped from job disclosure
Offenders with minor criminal records such as shoplifting will no longer have to disclose them to employers under new laws designed to help rehabilitation efforts that came into force on 28 November 2020.
The Home Office announced the abolition of the requirement to automatically disclose youth cautions, reprimands and warnings which means that the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) will also no longer automatically disclose all convictions where an individual has more than one.
Instead, each individual conviction will be assessed as to whether it should be revealed.
The Government took nearly two years to introduce the changes after the Supreme Court ruled that the criminal records disclosure process infringed human rights. In January last year the court found in favour of three people who claimed their lives were blighted by “spent” minor convictions.
One of them was a woman convicted for shoplifting a 99p book in 1999 and then failing to turn up to a magistrates’ court while suffering from untreated schizophrenia. She wanted to work as a voluntary teaching assistant but was required to disclose her convictions and then explain her medical history.
Campaigning groups said that the new rules will result in a better balance between rehabilitating offenders and protecting the public.
It means that an extra 45,000 people a year will have a clear DBS check, required for jobs such as barristers or accountants, or an enhanced check, required for working with children, as teachers or in social care.
About 20 per cent of those who would have had their criminal records disclosed under the present regime will get a clear certificate.
Unlock, a charity that supports people with criminal records said: “For people who have been held back from employment and volunteering to help others because of mistakes they made years ago, the impact will be life changing.”
Christopher Stacey, a co-director of Unlock, said the changes were a “crucial first step” towards achieving a fair system that would take a more balanced approach towards disclosure.
“However, we are still left with a criminal records system where many people with old and minor criminal records are shut out of jobs that they are qualified to do,” he added.
A Home Office spokeswoman said: “The Government is absolutely clear that the public should be adequately safeguarded and employers should be able to make informed recruitment decisions.
“The criminal records disclosure regime is designed to protect the public, while rehabilitating those who offended in the past. These legislative changes strike the right balance between safeguarding the vulnerable and supporting former offenders into employment.”
