Responding to government plans to change the criminal records disclosure regime to address the Supreme Court judgment in the case of P and Others v SSHD & SSJ (the ruling on the filtering system and the disclosure of criminal records), Christopher Stacey, co-director of Unlock, said: “We welcome the government’s intention to fully comply with the Supreme Court ruling on filtering. Unlock

Unlock welcomes the Chancellor’s summer statement, in particular, incentivising employers to create training placements and apprenticeships for young adults. This age group has been significantly affected by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic – by mid-June, around a third of 18-24 year olds had been furloughed or made redundant. The ‘Kickstart’ scheme means 16-24 year

Boris Johnson was called out this week for “dithering” in sorting out our “damaging and discriminatory” criminal records system. At Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Questions, John Spellar MP, who represents Warley constituency, called for Boris Johnson to “sort out this scandal now”. The Prime Minister conceded there are issues with the system that need looking at

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

Sean contacted our helpline for some advice in answering a vetting form which he’d been given by a potential employer. Sean explained that he’d been working for the company as a contractor but was in the process of transferring to being a permanent member of staff. He’d been asked to complete a vetting form which

Mehmet contacted our helpline following an application he’d made for a volunteering role with a well-known charity. Mehmet explained that having recently been accepted by the charity as a volunteer he’d just been told that he would need to have an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check prior to starting his training. He was concerned

Charles contacted our helpline following a job offer he’d received for a university lecturer’s job in China. He’d been told that he would need to provide a police certificate in order to get a work visa and he wanted to know whether his two convictions would be disclosed. When our advisor explained that the convictions

We’ve just published our update for June 2020. This months update includes: An infographic setting out details of the number of people we supported in 2019/20 through out helpline and online sites. An update to our list of ban the box employers to include details of companies that have recently signed up to remove the

As part of our fair access to employment project we’re gathering information on employers who have carried out standard or enhanced checks where only a basic is legally permitted. For some jobs, employers are allowed to consider cautions and spent convictions (unless they have been filtered). Employers recruiting for these jobs are legally permitted to

As part of our fair access to employment project, we are gathering evidence of employers’ approaches to people with criminal records. We work with employers to develop fair policies and practices and highlight good practice. Ban the box is a key part of helping people with convictions get back into the workplace, and we have

Do you deal with criminal records in your work? You might be helping people with convictions who are applying for jobs, or you might be working in recruitment/HR and making hiring decisions or carrying out DBS checks. If any of these apply to you, book a place and join us on the 29th July for

It’s fair to say 2020 has been a year of major change – and we’re only halfway through. Whether you’ve been adapting to home working, learning a new skill, or embracing your natural hair, we’re all dealing with change. That can be challenging but there’s a sense that this moment is a portal to the