Posts linking to the latest news relating to recruiting people with convictions and dealing with criminal records
In 2018, Unlock surveyed 80 well-known national employers’ online application systems to assess their approaches to recruiting people with criminal records. We selected companies based on an in-house poll of large employers. We have now conducted a comparable survey in 2023, to explore whether practice has changed. Read the full report here. We found: Overall, […]
Working Chance is the UK’s only employment charity exclusively for women who have convictions. They help women to develop the confidence, skills, and self-belief to get into work or education. They partner with over 110 employers across England and Wales to match women with the right opportunities. Their latest report, Progress and Prejudice, explored employer […]
Since 2018 when UCAS removed questions about criminal records from their application, universities have had to make their own decisions about whether to ask for most courses. For courses leading to regulated professions, UCAS continue to ask. Universities collect further information about spent and unspent criminal records and conduct their own assessments – often called […]
In 2018 research by Unlock found that 70% of well-known national employers asked about criminal records on application. Three years on, with increased understanding of data protection, the GDPR and inclusive recruitment, we reviewed those employers to see what, if anything had changed. Key findings in 2018 The 2018 findings were disappointing, though perhaps not […]
If you recruit for jobs that are exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act you will be familiar with filtering. Since May 2013, some cautions and convictions are automatically ‘filtered’ from standard and enhanced DBS certificates and job applicants are legally entitled to withhold filtered cautions and convictions from employers. The existing rules apply to […]
Unlock have written to HM Treasury to suggest financial incentives and ban the box are included in the upcoming Comprehensive Spending Review. A Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) is the process of setting spending priorities and defining improvements the public can expect over the next few years. The CSR 2020 will set out the government’s spending […]
Unlock, a national advocacy charity for people with criminal records, has today published Checked out?, a report on so-called ‘ineligible’ criminal record checks, submitted by employers and processed by the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 allows some criminal records to become spent after a crime-free period. This means they […]
As we face an uncertain future we need all hands on deck to rebuild the economy. Unlock is calling on government to pilot financial incentives for employers who proactively recruit people with convictions. Many businesses are fearful of hiring people with a criminal record. Long-standing – but inaccurate – beliefs about reliability and risk mean […]
As the coronavirus spreads in the UK and government advice means millions of people are staying home to stay safe, there is an urgent need for people to help with key roles. The NHS are looking for 250,000 volunteers, while social care providers, supermarkets and other essential services are boosting their workforce. We’ve been contacted […]
The ICO is carrying out a survey to find out if organisations processing Article 10 data understand the data protection requirements for processing this information. Unlock have submitted a response based on our experience of working with employers, universities, housing providers and others. You can view our submission by clicking on the image below. The […]