The latest blog by Christopher Stacey reflects on last month’s landmark criminal record disclosure hearing.   For people with criminal records, last month was pretty significant. The Supreme Court heard the appeal of the Government, which is arguing that their current approach to disclosing old and minor cautions and convictions on standard and enhanced criminal

Commenting on today’s news of changes to the childcare disqualification arrangements, Christopher Stacey, co-director of Unlock, said: “Today’s announcement to scrap the ‘disqualification by association’ rule from schools is long overdue but very welcomed. We’ve been calling for it to be scrapped for nearly 4 years because it did nothing to contribute towards safeguarding in

We’ve just published our update for June 2018.             This months update includes: An advice post setting out the pros and cons of applying for a Subject Access Request compared with a basic DBS check if you want to find out whats on your criminal record. A link to an

  As a result of Unlock’s intervention at the Supreme Court in a landmark legal case on the criminal record disclosure regime, we  have featured in the following media: BBC Newsnight ‘Fighting to change my criminal record’     The CIPD news site People Management ‘Criminal record checks could infringe human rights, Supreme Court hears’   The

The Supreme Court will tomorrow hear the Government’s appeal in a long running case about the disclosure of criminal records. The Government is arguing that their current approach to disclosing old and minor cautions and convictions on standard and enhanced criminal record checks, often decades later, is fair. We disagree. And so did the High

              We are delighted to announce the appointment of four new trustees to the board of Unlock – Mark Day, Faye Goldman, Leigh Hardy and Mark Rowe – who took up their posts in June. They bring with them a wealth of skills and experience that will ably assist

Today Unlock has published a paper, University admissions and criminal records: Lessons learned and next steps. The paper is featured in a blog by Christopher Stacey in Times Higher Education. For the last two decades, access to higher education in the UK for people with a criminal record has been seen to be much more

As part of our work to wipe DBS clean of old and minor criminal records, I wanted to post the details of the Supreme Court hearing. (We’ll update this post with more specific details as and when we have them.) The case is listed to be heard over 3 days, starting Tuesday 19th June. The

Commenting on news that UCAS, the university admissions service, will no longer ask applicants to declare criminal convictions when they apply for most courses, Christopher Stacey, co-director of Unlock, said: “Unlock very much welcomes the removal of the main criminal conviction box from the UCAS form. This is a significant change that has the potential

We’ve just published our update for May 2018.             This months update includes: Some new information providing examples of self-disclosure statements/letters. A link to an advice post setting out the problems encountered when using a comparison website with an unspent conviction. A personal story on responding to a recruitment agency

Commenting on the Ministry of Justice’s Employment and Education Strategy, Christopher Stacey, co-director of Unlock, said: “Unlock welcomes today’s Education and Employment Strategy from the Ministry of Justice, which includes some key measures that we support, including looking at financial incentives to encourage employers, and the civil service piloting its own scheme to directly employ

Back in 2016, we ran two disclosure workshops at HMP Wormwood Scrubs and Pentonville. This was because the organisations working in resettlement felt that individuals in prison were often unaware of where to go to get information and advice about the long term effects of a criminal record and that workshops dealing with all aspects