Criminal Records For Employment Rules To Be Tightened

LONDON - March 8, 2014 - PRLog -- On the 3^rd March 2014 Member of Parliament and minister of state for justice Simon Hughes recently gave a speech at the ICO’s Data protection Practitioner Conference.

He commented on the changing nature of how we share and process person data, it is essential that the government provide strong rights for the data subject to protect against abuses and appropriate sanctions for those who breach the DPA.

He went on to say that the Government plans to make the practice of enforced subject access illegal. This practice has long been considered undesirable as it contrary to the intention of the right to subject access in the DPA.

The Government will commence s56 of the DPA as part of a package of reforms to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act and criminal records disclosure. This will prohibit a person from requiring someone else to produce certain records as a condition of employment, or for providing a service, other than where law requires the relevant record or where it is justified in the public interest.

He is also keen to see Custodial sentences imposed for breaches of Sec 55 of the DPA.

Roy Whitehouse of WIS International, says, “We have been undertaking pre- employment screening for many years throughout the world and in particular the United Kingdom, we are asked many times for criminal records checks on prospective employees applying for position in other countries. The law as it stands is quite specific about who you can and cannot undertake a criminal check on, it all depends on the job one is applying for.” It is possible for a person to ask for a criminal check on themselves. This is where employers are getting around the present rules. They ask the employee to provide a certificate of non-conviction. The new rules will outlaw this practice.

WIS International is a business intelligence company with offices in London & Portugal, providing employment screening and background checks in most countries. WIS also undertakes brand protection investigations as well as insurance fraud investigations and ‘alive and well’ reports for the Workers Compensation Companies in the US.

Roy Whitehouse is a certified fraud examiner, a Board member of the British Portuguese Chamber of Commerce, past president of the Council of International Investigators and a member of the Association of British Investigators and the World Association of Detectives.