“A police force unlawfully infringed a physical education teacher’s human rights by refusing to remove detail of an 18-year-old woman’s harassment allegation from a ‘criminal record certificate’ available to potential employers, a High Court judge has ruled.”
The Independent, 22nd April 2013
Source: www.independent.co.uk
“When Clare Wood was murdered by her ex-boyfriend, a scheme was set up to allow women to see details of their partner’s violent past. Six months on, Steve Boggan finds out if ‘Clare’s Law’ is working.”
The Guardian, 21st April 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“New powers will give the European Union’s criminal intelligence agency Europol
access to all information held by the police, including evidence files on
children, victims, witnesses and other people never even suspected of a crime.”
Daily Telegraph, 18th April 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Imagine you are a middle-aged man with a young family looking to change career to work as a primary school teacher. When you were 12 you took a chocolate bar from a shop. You learnt a salutary lesson and never repeated this isolated error of judgment. Is it right that your prospective employer should be told this? Well, whilst the Government thought your prospective employer should be forewarned, the Court of Appeal disagreed. The Court of Appeal, in R(T) & Others v Greater Manchester was critical of the ‘blanket nature’ of the current regime deeming it disproportionate in pursuance of the legitimate aim of safeguarding children and young adults. As a result of this important case, the Government has been forced to modify the disclosure regime to avoid offending Art 8; the right to private and family life.”
Halsbury’s Law Exchange, 18th April 2013
Source: www.halsburyslawexchange.co.uk
“Just 30 out of 227,000 people have failed the City regulator’s ‘fit and proper’ test to take on some of the most risky jobs in British banks since the onset of the financial crisis.”
The Guardian, 12th April 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Thousands of job applicants will no longer have to face their criminal past
being disclosed to employers, under changes announced by the Home Office.”
BBC News, 26th March 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“Changes to criminal records checks will continue to protect the public while ensuring that employers no longer have access to certain old or minor cautions and convictions.”
Home Office, 26th March 2013
Source: www.homeoffice.gov.uk
“The retention by the police of personal information on an individual stored on a police national database, or the issue of a warning notice against a person accused of harassment and its retention in police records, involved an interference with a person’s right to respect for his private and family life, within the meaning of article 8 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and such retention would breach the right unless justified.”
WLR Daily, 14th March 2013
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
“Thousands of parents are still being forced to undergo ‘suspicious and hostile’ criminal record checks to volunteer in schools despite Coalition reforms designed to introduce common sense into the child protection system, according to research.”
Daily Telegraph, 24th February 2013
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
“Shereener Browne analyses the recent decision in T, R (on the application of) v Chief Constable of Greater Manchester & Ors and its impact on employment law.”
Garden Court Chambers Blog, 18th February 2013
Source: www.gclaw.wordpress.com
“UK laws that set out a ‘blanket’ requirement that job applicants disclose to employers all of the ‘recordable’ criminal convictions and police warnings they have been given are incompatible with individuals’ right to privacy, the Court of Appeal has ruled.”
OUT-LAW.com, 31st January 2013
Source: www.out-law.com
“The statutory regime requiring the blanket disclosure of all convictions and cautions relating to recordable offences against an individual was disproportionate to (i) the general aim of protecting employers and, in particular, children and vulnerable adults who were in their care, and (ii) the particular aim of enabling employers to make an assessment as to whether the individual was suitable for a particular kind of work.”
WLR Daily, 29th Janaury 2013
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
“A man from Brighton who wants records of his political activities removed from a police database has taken his case to the Court of Appeal.”
BBC News, 29th January 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“The Court of Appeal has today [29 January] handed down an important judgment in R (T & others) v Chief Constable of Greater Manchester & others [2013] EWCA Civ 25. The case concerned the blanket requirement in the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, section 113B of the Police Act 1997 and articles 3 and 4 of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 that criminal convictions and cautions must be disclosed in an enhanced criminal record check (‘ECRC’) in the context of particular types of employment (such as with children or vulnerable adults), even if those convictions or cautions would otherwise be deemed spent by the 1974 Act.”
Panopticon, 29th January 2013
Source: www.panopticonblog.com
“The home secretary, Theresa May, is facing urgent pressure to overhaul the criminal records system after an appeal court ruled that the way it operated was unlawful and breached human rights.”
The Guardian, 29th January 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“This fascinating case comes to light in the midst of general astonishment at the minimal attention paid in the Leveson Report to the ‘wild west’ of the internet and the question of social media regulation.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 5th December 2012
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
“Calls to erase the criminal records of the estimated 7,000 men detained and ‘falsely charged’ during the miners’ strike have been made by campaigners demanding a fresh inquiry into the policing of the dispute.”
The Guardian, 1st December 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“This week, the Court of Appeal heard the cases of R (T) v Chief Constable of the Greater Manchester Police and others and R (JB) v the Secretary of State for the Home Department. These are the latest in a series of cases challenging whether the criminal records checks regime is compatible with the Convention. Unlike previous cases, which have concerned the disclosure of “soft information” held on local police computer systems, these cases raise in stark terms the compatibility of s.113B(3)(a) of the Police Act 1997 with Article 8. This requires the disclosure of all convictions, cautions, warnings and reprimands on an Enhanced Criminal Records Certificate (‘ECRC’). In T’s case, his ECRC disclosed a warning he had been given for stealing a bicycle when he was 11. In JB’s case, her ECRC disclosed a caution for shoplifting given eight years before the check.”
Panopticon, 28th November 2012
Source: www.panopticonblog.com
“A 73-year old man who has a criminal record for being in a gay relationship in the 1950s has applied to have his conviction struck out.”
BBC News, 28th November 2012
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“The European Court of Human Rights yesterday handed down a Chamber judgment in declaring that the arrangements for the indefinite retention of data relating to a person’s caution in a criminal matter and for the disclosure of such data in criminal record checks infringe Article 8 of the ECHR.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 15th November 2012
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
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