Dishonest employees to be exposed on national dismissal register

A country-wide database of 'workplace offenders' will be launched later this month to combat the annual loss of half-a-billion pounds through staff theft and fraud.

The National Staff Dismissal Register will allow employers to share and access details of staff that have been dismissed or have left employment while under investigation for dishonest actions.

Such actions include theft, fraud, forgery, falsification of documents and causing damage to company property. An employee need not have a criminal conviction for their details to be added to the database.

The Home Office says it stopped funding the scheme in 2007, having pumped £1m over the three years it was associated with the project.

The register is an initiative by Action Against Business Crime, a partnership between the Home Office and the British Retail Consortium, and is allowable under the regulation of the Data Protection Act 1998.

Big names to have thrown their weight behind the register, include retailers Harrods, HMV and Selfridges, and outsourcing agency Reed Managed Services.