Latest posts to Recruit!
We were contacted by an individual who was concerned that a question on an employer’s application form in respect of a job requiring an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service checks was misleading as it did not provide any guidance around ‘protected’ cautions and convictions. The question on the application form stated: “Criminal Convictions (see guidance […]
We’ve recently been involved in a case where a training provider offering vocational and online courses to apprentices was requesting an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check for an individual being employed as an account manager. The primary role of the account manager was to liaise with the training company’s current partners and to […]
We’ve recently worked on a case where a university had stated in a job description for a ‘Lecturer in Criminology’ role that: “The successful applicant will have to undergo a DBS check before an appointment can be made.” Unfortunately, it didn’t specify what level of check. When we asked, they said that they’d be carrying […]
We’ve recently been involved in a case where a student’s union was considering taking disciplinary action against one of its new trustees for failing to disclose their conviction. The trustee concerned had an unspent conviction at the time of their election to the board. After extensive research she had satisfied herself that her offence would […]
We’ve recently been involved in a case where a local council has, by their own admission, carried out an ineligible enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check which has resulted in an individual being considered for inclusion on the adult and children’s barred lists. The individual concerned had been working for the council for many years […]
We’ve recently been involved in a case where a refrigeration/air-conditioning company were looking to carry out enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service checks on all their service engineers irrespective of where they would be working. The company concerned had just bought out another company and had taken on several new contracts. They had transferred over existing […]
We’ve recently been involved in a case where an employer suspended an individual from his teaching position as a result of the alleged non-disclosure of a caution he’d received 9 years ago. Following the introduction of new legislation in May 2013, the individual’s caution was eligible to be filtered from standard and enhanced Disclosure and […]
…it automatically excludes people with criminal convictions? This is the question we asked law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP to explore, in light of the disproportionate representation of BAME groups throughout the criminal justice system. Their answer, in short, was yes – there are “no substantive legal obstacles (intrinsic in the legislation) to BAME job […]
If the answer’s yes, this page should help, but make sure you’ve done two things first: Before you start encouraging applications, make sure you’ve developed a policy towards applicants with a criminal record. Each time you recruit, make sure you look at your approach to criminal records and make sure you’re doing everything right; we […]
BAME groups are overrepresented at every stage of the criminal justice system. According to a recent review led by David Lammy MP, black men are three times more likely to be arrested than white men. The same review found that men from BAME backgrounds are 16% more likely than white men to be remanded in […]