Category Archives: Legislation

Changes to information reported on DBS Certificates

Criminal Records and the CRB, Legislation,

Now  we are into 2021 and thinking of the possibility of life after lockdown, it is a good time to review safer recruitment practice. In particular, review  the wording of self-disclosure questions for job applicants and  seek quality references.

Because from 28 November 2020, the filtering rules for DBS checks changed.

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) will no longer disclose youth reprimands, youth warnings, or youth cautions.  And where  an individual has more than one conviction – they will no longer  be automatically disclosed.  Instead each individual conviction will be assessed against the appropriate rules.

The egislation has changed as are the result of a Supreme Court Judgment which identified that some elements of the existing filtering rules were disproportionate.

More information about these guidelines, can be found in the following government filtering guides:

 

Definition of Regulated Activity for Adults

Criminal Records and the CRB, Health, Justice, Legislation, Social Care, Voluntary, Vulnerable Adults, ,

Regulated activities are the activities that the DBS can bar people from doing. It is a criminal offence for a barred person to seek to work, or work in, activities from which they are barred. It is also a criminal offence for employers or voluntary organisations to knowingly employ a barred person in regulated activity.

The CQC provides guidance on which activities are considered regulated.

This is their quick reference guide, showing how regulated activities and service types are likely to link to each other.  It is important to review the regulated activities
regulations, decide which regulated activities your service carries out, and then apply to register for those activities. If you carry on a regulated activity without being registered for it, you may be prosecuted and liable to a fine.

The Department of Health has also published information on the scope of regulated activity in relation to adults.

‘Death in Custody’ crime created

Justice, Legislation, Vulnerable Adults, , ,

A ‘Deaths in custody’ corporate manslaughter crime has been created so that Police and other authorities can now be prosecuted over deaths in custody in England, Scotland and Wales.

BBC News highlights that the new legislation of  The Corporate Manslaughter and Homicide Act, which has now come into effect means police forces, the MoD, UK Border Agency and private firms managing people held in custody can be prosecuted for corporate manslaughter. Corporations can already be prosecuted for corporate manslaughter or for the equivalent offence (corporate homicide) in Scotland.  The extension of these offences to public bodies involved in detention means they could be prosecuted if they failed to ensure the safety of someone in their care.  Examples could include deaths during an immigration removal or when someone has been restrained using an unauthorised or badly taught body hold.

The law does not cover incidents abroad, such as where someone dies in the custody of British forces. However, British nationals can be convicted of causing a death through gross negligence, even if the fatality occurred overseas.  The provisions are not retrospective, meaning the law could not apply to cases such as Jimmy Mubenga, an Angolan man who died during his deportation in October 2010.

Under the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act of 2006, priosoners were included as ‘vulnerable adults’.  However the Protection of Freedoms Bill will remove this status when it becomes law.

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