Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department operates a ban the box employment policy in respect of ex-offender job applicants with unspent convictions; and how many employees of his Department have unspent convictions.

As part of the Cabinet Office recruitment process there is no requirement for applicants to declare unspent criminal convictions at the initial recruitment stage. Applicants are asked to declare unspent criminal convictions as part of basic employment checks when a provisional offer of employment has been made. Decisions concerning appointment to a post where an individual has a conviction history are made on a case-by-case basis. If a post requires National Security Vetting then both spent and unspent convictions are considered on a case by case basis under a national security exemption to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act.

We would not release the information on numbers or individuals for security reasons.