back to article Crap employers banned from enforcing backdoor crim records checks

Employers who force potential workers to request a criminal record check on themselves face prosecution after a change in UK law that comes into effect on Tuesday, 10 March. New regulations – to be enforced by data privacy watchdogs at the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) – will outlaw so-called "back door" criminal …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    And what about?

    Making it illegal for employers to ask for access to social media account while we are at it?

    1. phil dude
      Thumb Up

      Re: And what about?

      I don't know about the illegality of asking, but surely you can say "what account", or "no"?

      Yes, I know that perhaps you need the job etc.. but the principle of not giving just because some tw*t in a tie asks you , is a generally good thing.

      Or possibly another reason not to use your real name on social media no matter what the advertising drones want.

      It has a nasty habit of being associated with the real world, we have to live in...

      P.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: And what about?

        The moment someone asks me for such info. Stand up offer handshake(if I consider them worth it). And goodbye.

        1. qwertyuiop

          Re: And what about?

          Which is fine until the government turns around and says "Oh, you were unemployed and turned down a perfectly good job offer? Your benefits will be sanctioned (ie. forfeited) for the next 3 months!".

          Nowadays people don't always have free choice in accepting or rejecting jobs.

          1. S4qFBxkFFg

            Re: And what about?

            Probably not. If the applicant simply refuses to supply the information, they won't get the job offer and there's nothing for them to reject.

            1. Alan Brown Silver badge

              Re: And what about?

              The way the wankers at DWP work, refusing an illegal request will also be counted as rejecting the job offer - and you can bet your bottom dollar that when it comes to your word against an employer, unless there's a written record or recording of the demand, it never happened.

    2. Irongut

      Re: And what about?

      There is a simpler solution... Don't be a Facebook twat.

    3. Steven Roper

      Re: And what about?

      I've never been asked this, but then I haven't been in the job market for a long time. But if I were, and I was asked to provide access to my private accounts at an interview, my response would be something along the lines of:

      "Obviously I cannot give out that information. And in all honesty, what does it say of your company's attitude to IT security that you would even ask for such information and expect an answer? If I tell you, how could you trust that I wouldn't give out my login details to your company's systems in future if someone required it for whatever reason?"

  2. Goldmember

    And how many people...

    .. are going to rat out their new employer? You usually get these done on the commencement of a new position. If a company (which has just offered you a job) asks you to do an SA request as opposed to doing a full CRB check themselves (which costs 5 times as much and takes longer), it puts you in a very difficult position.

    1. localzuk Silver badge

      Re: And how many people...

      I don't know about you, but if a company did that to me I wouldn't want to work for them anyway!!

    2. Japhy Ryder

      Re: And how many people...

      Which is why it soon will be a criminal offence to put you in that difficult position. It may not deter all, but some, perhaps most, is better than none.

      The other thing that those who force people to do SARs perhaps have not thought of is the potential for MITM attack on the material?

    3. ScottAS2

      Re: And how many people...

      This is one reason for being a member of a trade union. No-one needs to put their head above the parapet: the rep just goes to management and says "our members tell us that...".

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So who is actually liable, the company or the person asking you to submit the request ?

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Safeguards? What safeguards?

    This "enforced subject access" bypasses the legal criminal record check process, overriding safeguards that only allow for checks and disclosure of information appropriate to the role being applied for

    In my spare time I do some voluntary work. The overseeing body for this voluntary work insists that you have to have a CRB/DBS disclosure, despite the law clearly showing that this body has no legal right/justification for their demand. We raised this with the CRB/DBS service and they said "Meh". No-one was interested in stopping this blatant abuse of the CRB/DBS system and the CRB/DBS continued to dish out the disclosures.

  5. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    "Information for employers on making criminal record checks can be found here."

    And information for those needing to report an employer in breach of this provision? Preferably anonymously.

    Unless there's an effective system of enforcement this will go nowhere.

  6. BongoJoe

    And then what?

    So you apply to get your own data. What then? You have done as the employer requests and who is to say that you have to hand over the same data or indeed that you have done.

  7. Stevie

    Bah!

    "I will if you will".

    "Sure. Send me an e-mail requesting that so I don't forget."

  8. JaitcH
    WTF?

    Unlike John Cleese' Parrot, criminal records ...

    don't die even when they are expired by time.

    There are two types of CR printouts, my friend told me, for immigration. One is good for some countries like the USA, Canada, etc. and the other is a regular one you obtain for personal use.

    The former has codes that covertly indicate a criminal record and the 'personal' that shows everything in plain language.

    If you are granted a 'clean sheet' in Canada, you get just that - no record, although a minister can order a recidivist record to be returned for serious offenses.

    The USA doesn't do 'clean sheet's unless a politician gets involved. But they also have a crafty question - "Have you ever been arrested"? Lying, BTW, lying is a Federal offence. Remember the 5th Amendment, shuts Cops up.

  9. alain williams Silver badge

    Could I do a crim check on a prospective employer ?

    That would be very interesting - especially in banking circles!

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Checks for people running activities in community hall

    I manage (as a volunteer) a community hall, and we ask/require the people who run childrens clubs in the hall to get CRB checks, which they essentially have to pay for themselves. We don't let people who don't have a CRB check run a club in our hall. Is it now illegal for us to make this a condition?

    1. Salts

      Re: Checks for people running activities in community hall

      You need to reread the article and understand it

    2. Allan 1

      Re: Checks for people running activities in community hall

      Essentially, yes. The onus is now on you to make an official CRB check request directly with the police yourself, and pay for it, yourself. You can no longer place the onus on the other person.

      1. Joe Harrison

        Re: Checks for people running activities in community hall

        What is the point of such a check? The crafty ones don't get caught in the first place. If you had tried it on a certain notorious BBC presenter he would just have shown you his nice clean record.

    3. Intractable Potsherd

      Re: Checks for people running activities in community hall

      "I manage (as a volunteer) a community hall, and we ask/require the people who run childrens clubs in the hall to get CRB checks ..."

      I'm not sure that you, as the manager of a facility, have any right to require that people merely renting the use of it have CRB checks.

  11. roger 8

    its not a CRB any more the rules changed its a DBS check. I am a volunteer for a group and another organisation ask for us to all be DBS checked. but as we dont fall under the criteria for a check we cant get one.

    I dont regularly work with children so no requirment for DBS. Even though now and then I may come in contact with a child. That being said the child would either be with a parent or responsible adult

  12. JohnMurray

    I wonder why DBS Scotland does a roaring business with English companies?

    Especially as disclosures via DBS Scotland are supposed to be proportional to country: IE, if the person is resident in England the disclosure is supposed to be under DBS Eng rules. But large s/mart chains get total disclosure from DBS Scot for even trolley stacking jobs.

  13. BuckeyeB

    Well we wouldn't want anything like the truth to get in the way of what someone wants(job, apartment, etc). I guess character doesn't matter any more.

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