Looking back at some key moments in 2015

With the Christmas break almost upon us and 2015 coming to an end, we wanted to write a short note to reflect on the last 12 months. Yet again, it’s been an incredibly successful and busy year for Unlock with lots of positive news and progress to report. We’ve continued to expand the information, advice

URGENT – Help us and have your say on the Charities Bill

The Charities Bill, which is currently going through Parliament, will have a significant impact on both people with criminal records and those charities that employ them as senior managers and have them as trustees. Now the Bill has reached committee stage, it’s now time to make sure that MP’s looking closely at the Bill are

Unlock supports legal challenge to disproportionate criminal records disclosure scheme

The High Court will tomorrow hear a legal challenge, with the support of Unlock, to the Government’s criminal records disclosure scheme. There are two cases being heard on Tuesday 8th December, both focusing on how the system forces people with more than one conviction to disclose them forever when applying for areas of work that involve standard or enhanced
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Extension of disqualifications in charities bill ‘unnecessary’

Today, we have published a briefing that we’ve produced in advance of a debate in the House of Commons this coming Thursday, 3rd December, when the Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Bill is due its Second Reading. The concerns raised in this briefing focus on issues relating to criminal records, and represent the views of

Marking 15 years of Unlock

Unlock has now been a charity for fifteen years. To mark the occasion, supporters and beneficiaries joined staff, trustees, patrons, Peers and volunteers at a reception hosted by our President, Lord Ramsbotham. With the kind permission of The Lord Speaker, Baroness D’Souza, Lord Ramsbotham sponsored our use of the stunning House of Lords River Room; a

Unlock speak at ICO policy conference: “The Google effect – Criminal records and the ‘right to be forgotten’”

I was pleased to be invited to speak today at the ICO’s Data Protection Policy Conference. With the title “Privacy versus the right to know: balancing privacy and access to personal information in the internet era”, I was asked to come and take part in a panel discussion, “Technology, information and its consequences”, speaking alongside

New employer guide to creating a fair recruitment process, marking two years of Ban the Box

Two years on since the launch of the Ban the Box campaign, Business in the Community (BITC), who lead the campaign, have marked the anniversary by launching a free step-by-step guide to creating a fair recruitment process in dealing with criminal records. We’ve endorsed the campaign since it launched in October 2013 in response to

Thank you!

We recently sent out a mailshot on behalf of The Co-operative Insurance who were looking for people with burglary convictions to complete a short survey. This survey formed part of a study they were on doing on popular home security measures. The Co-operative Insurance were seeking up to 25 respondents and in return, to show

Autumn 2015 Newsletter

Today we’ve published our Autumn Newsletter. The newsletter provides an update of the news at Unlock in the last three months. It’s sent to everyone who’s on our public mailing list, and we hope it’s a useful way of keeping up to date with what we’ve been up to. Download the Autumn 2015 Newsletter.   

Some examples of people we’ve helped

Looking back over the last couple of months, we’ve written up a few examples of the people we’ve helped. We hope they give a good idea of how we help people. However, more importantly than our role, we think that these examples show how people with convictions are able to overcome some of the barriers

Unlock joins the Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Advisory Group

I’m pleased to report that I’ve been selected to be part of the Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Advisory Group on behalf of Unlock. The group, known as RR3, exists to build a strong and effective partnership between the voluntary sector, the Ministry of Justice, and the National Offender Management Service. The group is chaired by

Check out our LinkedIn page

At Unlock, we like to think of ourselves as making good use of social media as an effective way of communicating with a range of groups of people. Yet, if we’re being honest, although we try and make regular use of Twitter and Facebook, we’ve probably neglected the role of LinkedIn, and how it might