Changes to accessing employees criminal records
17th April, 2015
The Disclosure and Barring Service allows employers to identify whether a job applicant has a criminal record however, crucially, this service does not disclose spent convictions.
Until recently employers were able to bypass this restriction by asking applicants to make a Data Protection Subject Access Record which would return the applicant’s full criminal record, including spent convictions.
However, a new provision was introduced in March 2015 under Section 56 of the Data Protection Act 1998 which now makes this common approach unlawful. Consequently employers cannot now request an applicant or an existing employee submit a Subject Access Request in order to produce a full copy of their criminal convictions.
This change in the law comes following last year’s reduction to rehabilitation periods and the date they run from in an attempt to limit discrimination in the workplace.
In order to discuss how these changes can be implemented into your organisation, contact a partner in our employment team:
Shrewsbury Office: Paul Bennett 01743 453 685 [email protected]
Chester Office: Helen Watson 01244 405 565 [email protected]
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