CRB Checks to be Relaxed

The Home Office has today announced plans to relax CRB checks. Thousands of job applicants will consequently no longer have their criminal past disclosed to employers.

The announcement follows a Court of Appeal ruling in January that blanket checks for certain positions did not comply with human rights laws. It was initially thought that the government would appeal the ruling.

Criminal record checks are carried out on new employees for certain positions by the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS), previously known as the Criminal Records Bureau. For particular positions, such as those involving work with children and vulnerable adults, all of an individual’s previous convictions must always be declared, even if they are very old, very minor and irrelevant to the individual’s new job.

It was this part of the law that the Court of Appeal found incompatible with human rights. It held that the checks were incompatible with an individual’s right to a private life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. For the original article on the Court of Appeal ruling, see here.

Under the proposed legislation, convictions resulting in a non-custodial sentence will be filtered from CRB checks after 11 years for adults. For young offenders the period will be five and a half years. Cautions will be filtered from CRB checks after 6 years for adults and 2 years for young offenders.

However, serious violent and sexual offences and those offences resulting in a custodial sentence will always be disclosed as part of a criminal record check. A previous conviction will also not be filtered if an individual has other previous convictions.

The new system is expected to be implemented within weeks.

The Home Office article on the new changes can be read here.

The Law and CRB Checks

The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (and other laws) creates a system which allows an individual to treat certain convictions and warnings as ‘spent’. That is to say after a certain amount of time an individual can treat themselves as having never committed an offence. They do not need to tell most employers about their offending and cannot be refused employment because of it. A ‘standard CRB check’ would not show spent convictions.

However, for certain positions, many of which involve working with children and vulnerable adults, the law requires all previous offences and warnings to be declared. For these positions a conviction never becomes spent. An ‘enhanced CRB check’ would show all previous convictions, cautions and warnings. It was this part of the law that the Court of Appeal found incompatible with human rights. When the new law is in force, certain convictions and cautions will be filtered from all CRB checks (including enhanced checks), as detailed above, so that the concerns raised by the Court of Appeal are answered.