Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Latest NewsCriminal recordsEx-offendersPre-employment screening

Government proposes time reduction for disclosure of spent convictions

by Jo Faragher 16 Sep 2020
by Jo Faragher 16 Sep 2020 Justice Secretary Robert Buckland QC announced the proposals as part of a White Paper on sentencing reform
SOPA Images/SIPA USA/PA Images
Justice Secretary Robert Buckland QC announced the proposals as part of a White Paper on sentencing reform
SOPA Images/SIPA USA/PA Images

The government has today announced changes to how it defines ‘spent convictions’, making it easier for ex-offenders to find employment.

The Ministry of Justice revealed proposals for certain convictions to be spent after a reduced amount of time so they no longer automatically appear on employment record checks through the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

Recruiting ex-offenders

Policy on recruitment of ex-offenders 

Opening doors: the benefits of recruiting ex-offenders 

Under the proposals, custodial sentences of up to a year will become spent after a further 12 months without reoffending, while convictions between one and four years will no longer be disclosed after a further four years without reoffending.

Previously, such offences would continue to be shared with employers for up to four and seven years respectively.

The time reductions will not apply to offences such as serious sexual, violent or terrorist crimes, or to those working in sensitive roles such as teaching and nursing.

After a seven-year period of rehabilitation, sentences of more than four years will no longer be automatically disclosed to employers. Currently, details of these offences must be shared with an employer for the entirety of an individual’s life, even if the crime was committed many years before.

The MoJ stressed, however, that any individual that reoffends during their rehabilitation period would have to disclose their original and subsequent offences to potential employers.

The proposals follow secondary legislation announced in July to remove the automatic disclosure of youth cautions, reprimands and warnings.

They appear in a government White Paper issued today by Justice Secretary Robert Buckland QC, entitled A Smarter Approach to Sentencing, which contains a raft of proposed measures to modernise how sentencing works and to make the justice system more efficient.

Launching the White Paper, Buckland said: “For some offenders who are stuck in cycles of crime, not being able to get a job can be both a major driver in their offending, but also a major barrier to their rehabilitation.

“Evidence suggests that offenders who find P45 employment in the twelve months after release from prison have one-year reoffending rates that are 6-9 percentage points lower than similar offenders who did not find employment.”

Reducing the time period after which certain sentences are considered spent would “enable offenders who do not pose a risk to the public to finally get a job that could be a significant milestone on their route away from offending once and for all”, he added.

Christopher Stacey, co-director of campaigning group Unlock, said the proposals were “very much welcome”, but that the proposals could still exclude around two-thirds of the 8,000 people every year who receive sentences of more than four years.

Stacey said: “The risk of reoffending is consistently lower for those who have served longer sentences, and data on reoffending by index offence shows sexual and violent offences have lower rates of reoffending than many other categories.

“Exclusions by offence type risk creating unfairness and anomalies at the margins, further entrenching racial injustice and embedding the idea that some people are inherently incapable of rehabilitation.

“To genuinely support people striving to turn their lives around through work, all sentences of over four years should be capable of becoming ‘spent’ at some point.”

Diversity and inclusion opportunities on Personnel Today

Browse more Diversity and inclusion jobs

Jo Faragher
Jo Faragher

Jo Faragher has been an employment and business journalist for 20 years. She regularly contributes to Personnel Today and writes features for a number of national business and membership magazines. She won the Willis Towers Watson HR journalist of the year award in 2015 and has been highly commended twice.

previous post
PPMA conference 2020: Managers must promote hope and joy
next post
BA boss signals ‘fire and rehire’ plan U-turn

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

You may also like

Apprenticeships to unlock potential for prisoners

11 Feb 2022

‘Urgent’ call for former teachers to return to...

20 Dec 2021

Prisoners may fill vacancies in UK food processing...

23 Aug 2021

Employing ex-offenders: Timpson Group talks to Oven-Ready HR

16 Jul 2021

Drive to find jobs for ex-offenders launches in...

10 Dec 2020

Government sets date for changes to DBS checks

19 Nov 2020

DBS checks: How rehabilitation periods are changing

6 Nov 2020

Proposal to erase minor convictions from criminal record...

10 Jul 2020

Opening doors: the benefits of recruiting ex-offenders

6 Feb 2020

Tesco employee jailed over customer refund thefts

19 Dec 2019
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more
  • Why now is the time to plug the unhealthy gap PROMOTED | We’ve all heard the term ‘health is wealth’...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+