Earlier this year Alex registered with Transport for London’s National Apprenticeship Fair, hoping for the chance to meet with 15 employers offering vacancies across London. She was surprised to be asked about unspent convictions for a recruitment fair, but ticked the box and looked for the privacy policy to understand how it would be used. […]
HMPPS confirms prison and probation roles are covered by filtering rules
Samantha contacted Unlock’s helpline for advice on applying for a ‘Through the Gate’ role with Sodexo. The job involved helping women prepare for leaving prison and would be subject to prison vetting. Sodexo has banned the box, so Samantha was surprised to see the application form ask: Have you ever been convicted of any offences […]
Asking applicants to self-disclose can be deemed excessive, says ICO
Last month we published research that showed almost three-quarters of employers ask about criminal records at application stage. Being asked to self-disclose puts off applicants. Unlock encourages employers to consider whether they need to ask about criminal records at all. If you need to ask, questions should be targeted – for example, only asking at […]
New guidance published to support employers with GDPR, data protection and processing criminal records in recruitment
Today we have published new guidance to support employers to ensure that their policies and practices on collecting criminal records data during recruitment is compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. The guidance makes it clear that collecting criminal records at the initial application stage is unlikely to be […]