Are you disqualified from acting as a charity trustee or senior manager?

The Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Act 2016 means people with unspent convictions for specific offences, as well as those on the sex offenders register are automatically disqualified from acting as trustees or senior managers.

As a charity that exists to support the efforts of people with convictions in moving on positively with their lives, and as an organisation which itself seeks to recruit trustees and leaders who themselves have convictions, we are concerned about the impact of this. Ultimately, we think that the changes brought in by the 2016 Act are disproportionate and an ineffective way of protecting charities.

You are likely to be affected if you:

• have unspent convictions for dishonesty-related offences, deception-related offences, money laundering or terrorism-related offences

or

• are on the sex offenders register.

We’re gathering evidence from people who are impacted by the disqualification rules.

What we need from you

If you have are automatically disqualified from acting as a trustee or senior manager because of your criminal record and have been (or will be) affected by the rules in some way, contact us at policy@unlock.org.uk using the subject header ‘Call for evidence: CC disqualification’.

Please include:

• Your name
• Contact details (email and telephone) and how you’d like us to contact you
• Details of your criminal record
• Information on how the disqualification rules have affected you – did you have to give up a position you were already in? Have you applied for a position but been turned down by the charity?
• Have you applied to the Charity Commission for a waiver – and were you successful?
• What you think should change
• Whetther you would be willing to take part in publicising this issue (this is for our reference, we won’t share your details with others)

Any information you provide will be kept in line with our confidentiality policy. Any personal information provided to us will not be shared externally without your consent.

Find out more about how we handle your data.