Criminal Record Checks - stay on the right side of the law!

A client called the other day to ask about Criminal Record checks.  The organisation had a number of vacancies involving working with high value products, and was concerned about entrusting new recruits with thousands of pounds’ worth of goods.  They wanted to run Criminal Record checks before making job offers to ensure the candidates were honest; on the face of it, a reasonable enough request on the part of a prudent employer.

Unfortunately I had to advise him that this was not a lawful option, on account of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act.  The rationale behind the Act is that once a person has been punished for their offence and led a law-abiding life for a period of time thereafter, the conviction is deemed “spent” and he or she is no longer obliged to tell people – including future employers – about the offence.  In other words, their misdemeanour should not blight the rest of their life.   However, spent convictions remain on a person’s criminal record, along with details of police cautions, and other information in some cases.

Certain convictions can never become spent, and there are circumstances in which the employer is entitled to know the full story, including any spent convictions.  This is recognised by way of a list of exceptions to the Act, chiefly for positions working with children and vulnerable adults, as well as certain professionals in healthcare, the law and accountancy, finance directors and senior managers, and posts where national security may be at risk.  For such appointments Criminal Record Checks are permitted, even mandatory.

The positions my client was looking to fill were not among these exceptions, and therefore the organisation was not able to proceed with Criminal Record checks.

So what could he do?  I advised him to use his Recruitment Application Form to pose the question in the right way, i.e. asking only for details of any “unspent” convictions.  Then he should use his judgement to determine whether any past wrong doing that may be revealed was relevant to the vacancies he had – in this case an unspent conviction for theft or handling stolen goods would certainly ring alarm bells.   If the candidate failed to answer the question truthfully and this subsequently came to light, such dishonesty would be grounds for the withdrawal of a job offer, or for dismissal of the new recruit if the employment had already commenced.

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For more information on this or any employment issues, contact mara@mthorneconsulting.co.uk