On what grounds can an Employer ask for a CRB check on an Employee

SarEl

junkmayle wrote: »

Not for an enhanced CRB check Magic Pants. Your criminal record stays with you until the end of time. Totally neuters the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act.

Far be it from me to suggest anything coming out of the current government might be worth looking at.... and it doesn't help with the problem right now....

But since Clegg opened his website "Your freedom" there has been a nice little campaign going on there to align the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act and CRB checks, on the basis that stupid and spent offences shouldn't be disclosed (serious offences are never "spent", so the main purpose of the CRB check still holds). So if anyone is really that concerned about this issue I suggest you go and sign up to support such a move (or propose your own version if you want). It may not solve today's problem, but a change in the law might solve tomorrows.

Savvy_Sue

magic_pants wrote: »

Well as I understand it ( and I stand to be corrected ) for a "spent" conviction one can quite legally say one does not have a criminal record plus it is an offence for anyone to actually ask you to declare "spent" convictions. Time will tell I guess... Thanks for the advice!

Ah, now that's another question: would it be an enhanced or a standard check? You might find that nothing showed up on a standard check after all this time, whereas on an enhanced, it's all there and possibly then some ...

And thanks for that SarEl, and for anyone else interested the site is at http://yourfreedom.hmg.gov.uk/. It hadn't occurred to me that aligning CRB checks with the Rehabilitation of Offenders would be worth signing up for!

SarEl

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Ah, now that's another question: would it be an enhanced or a standard check? You might find that nothing showed up on a standard check after all this time, whereas on an enhanced, it's all there and possibly then some ...

And thanks for that SarEl, and for anyone else interested the site is at http://yourfreedom.hmg.gov.uk/. It hadn't occurred to me that aligning CRB checks with the Rehabilitation of Offenders would be worth signing up for!

Standard checks should include all convictions, cautions, reprimands and final warnings - regardless of whether they are spent or not, or when they were given. Enhanced checks only differ in that they include "police information" which may include things like suspected relevant activities or potential charges which have not yet been brought. So a standard check ought certainly to disclose any convictions, and if an applicant has, having been told that the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act does not apply and they must declare any convictions, failed to do so, then the employer might take a view that their dihonesty about that fact (rather than the conviction itself) makes them unsuitable. I am not saying that it's right - I happen to agree that the two Acts should be aligned. Simply pointing out that this may be the view they take.