Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the case of R (QSA and others) v Secretary of State for the Home Department and Secretary of State for Justice [2018] EWHC 407 (Admin), if she will assess the equity of the criminal record disclosure regime to ensure that it balances the public interest with the rights of an individual applicant for employment.

The Government believes that the disclosure and barring arrangements currently in place provide the right balance between protecting the public, giving employers the information they need to make safer recruitment decisions and allowing ex-offenders to gain employment. The High Court judgment in the case of R (QSA and others) was handed down on 2 March. The Government has been granted permission to appeal the judgment.

Standard and enhanced criminal record certificates are available when an applicant seeks to work with children, vulnerable people or in other specified roles. Under the statutory arrangements, certain old and minor convictions and cautions are not disclosed. Multiple offences for which an individual has received a caution may be filtered. The filtering provisions are not, however, available to anyone who has:

• received more than one conviction;
• been sentenced to custody; or
• received a conviction or caution for a listed offence.