The Home Office has today
announced plans to relax CRB checks. Thousands of job applicants will
consequently no longer have their criminal past disclosed to employers.
The announcement follows a Court
of Appeal ruling in January that blanket checks for certain positions did not
comply with human rights laws. It was initially thought that the government would
appeal the ruling.
Criminal record checks are
carried out on new employees for certain positions by the Disclosure and
Barring Service (DBS), previously known as the Criminal Records Bureau. For particular
positions, such as those involving work with children and vulnerable adults, all
of an individual’s previous convictions must always be declared, even if they
are very old, very minor and irrelevant to the individual’s new job.
It was this part of the law that
the Court of Appeal found incompatible with human rights. It held that the
checks were incompatible with an individual’s right to a private life under
Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. For the original article
on the Court of Appeal ruling, see here.
Under the proposed legislation,
convictions resulting in a non-custodial sentence will be filtered from CRB
checks after 11 years for adults. For young offenders the period will be five
and a half years. Cautions will be filtered from CRB checks after 6 years for
adults and 2 years for young offenders.
However, serious violent and
sexual offences and those offences resulting in a custodial sentence will
always be disclosed as part of a criminal record check. A previous conviction
will also not be filtered if an individual has other previous convictions.
The new system is expected to be
implemented within weeks.
The Home Office article on the
new changes can be read here.
The Law and CRB Checks
The Rehabilitation of Offenders
Act 1974 (and other laws) creates a system which allows an individual to treat
certain convictions and warnings as ‘spent’. That is to say after a certain
amount of time an individual can treat themselves as having never committed an
offence. They do not need to tell most employers about their offending and
cannot be refused employment because of it. A ‘standard CRB check’ would not
show spent convictions.
However, for certain positions, many of which
involve working with children and vulnerable adults, the law requires all
previous offences and warnings to be declared. For these positions a conviction
never becomes spent. An ‘enhanced CRB check’ would show all previous
convictions, cautions and warnings. It was this part of the law that the Court
of Appeal found incompatible with human rights. When the new law is in force,
certain convictions and cautions will be filtered from all CRB checks
(including enhanced checks), as detailed above, so that the concerns raised by
the Court of Appeal are answered.
