Government announces date when planned changes to criminal record disclosure rules will take effect

The government has today confirmed that planned changes to the rules on filtering will come into effect on Saturday 28 November. After years of campaigning for change, and after many months of holding the government to account on the implementation of the changes, the news was confirmed in a letter to Unlock from the Home
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Government loses criminal records disclosure appeal

The Court of Appeal has rejected the Government’s appeal to a decision of the High Court, which ruled that the criminal records disclosure scheme was disproportionate and unlawful. Reporting on the news, The Law Society Gazette said that the government will have to go back to the drawing board. In the article, Christopher Stacey of Unlock explained that the charity is contacted
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We’ve produced a simple guide to the filtering process

This update is taken from our Information Hub We know how complicated the criminal records process can be. The ‘filtering’ process that came in in May 2013 has been quite a culture shock to many people who were previously told that all cautions and convictions would come back on standard and enhanced checks. At the
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Unlock complaint leads to ruling that the Disclosure and Barring Service breached the Data Protection Act

We’re pleased to report that the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) has today issued a press release which sets out their ruling that the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) has breached the Data Protection Action after failing to stop collecting information about criminal conviction data that was no longer required because of a filtering regime that
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What types of offences are eligible for filtering?

This update is taken from our Information Hub Since the introduction of filtering in mid-2013, our helpline has been constantly asked “is my conviction or caution eligible for filtering?” In some ways, this has been an easy to identify. When was it? Is it your only conviction? How old were you at the time? However,
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Updates to the DBS filtering process

This update has been taken from our Information Hub December has seen a couple of updates from the Disclosure & Barring Service regarding the filtering process. Nothing has substantially changed – it’s simply that the DBS are trying to improve the way that they’re explaining how the filtering process works. So what has changed? Firstly,
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One conviction or multiple offences? The DBS filtering process

Ever since we published our Information Hub guide on the new DBS filtering process, our Helpline has been receiving queries left, right and centre about the filtering process and how it applies to them. It’s fair to say that, in lots of cases, it doesn’t help, because they have more than multiple convictions over many years,
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DBS start filtering cautions and convictions

This update is taken from our Information Hub As some of you may have seen from the news, the Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) has started, as of yesterday, a process of ‘filtering’ for cautions and convictions held on the Police National Computer. Today, we’ve published our own detailed guide on how the DBS filtering
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Filtering process for old/minor convictions put forward by Government

Unlock, the national charity for people with convictions, has today welcomed Government proposals which, if introduced, would mean that some old and minor cautions and convictions will no longer be disclosed on standard and enhanced level criminal record checks, carried out for employers by the Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS). In January 2013, the Court
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CRB’s and second chances

As part of of the ongoing Court of Appeal case about CRB checks, we’ve written an article for thejusticegap.com. You can read the article here.
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