By Deb S - 3 May 17 4:00 PM
For those of you that have been following the work we've been doing on challenging the DBS 'filtering' process, we've heard today that the Court of Appeal has rejected the Government's appeal to a decision of the High Court in January last year. This ruled that the criminal records disclosure scheme was disproportionate and unlawful.
The judgement handed down today involved a number of cases that were heard in the Court of Appeal in February this year, including one from Liberty and one from Hodge, Jones & Allen, supported by Just for Kids Law.
We're delighted with the Court of Appeal's judgement which will benefit thousands of people who have old or minor criminal records. The current system which was introduced in 2013, operates with inflexible rules meaning that, for example, someone with more than one conviction on their record will have them disclosed forever, regardless of the nature or circumstances. These shortcomings have now been recognised by the Court of Appeal.
We hope the next government will take immediate steps to respond to today's ruling by reforming the current system and introducing a fairer and more flexible system.
Debs
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