This is a draft for specialist review. Schedule 1 Part 4 of the Data Protection Act 2018 requires an appropriate policy document where criminal-offence data is processed under most Schedule 1 conditions. This is that document in draft.
1. What we process and why
We process information about convictions, cautions and other disposals for three purposes only:
- Guidance to the individual — helping someone understand whether a record is likely to be disclosable for a particular kind of role in their UK jurisdiction, so they can prepare.
- Supporting a lawful disclosure — where a specific role lawfully requires disclosure, and the individual chooses to release information to that one employer for that one role.
- Safeguarding and legal compliance — where we are required to act on information lawfully brought to our attention.
We do not process it to rank, score, filter or rate anybody, and it never feeds our matching or recommendation logic.
2. Lawful basis and condition
Our lawful basis is legitimate interests for purpose 1, and the performance of a contract and compliance with a legal obligation for purpose 2. Our Schedule 1 condition is to be confirmed by specialist review for each purpose; we will not rely on consent alone as the condition for purpose 2, because consent given to obtain a job is unlikely to be freely given.
3. Data minimisation
- Nothing about a criminal record is required to register, search or apply.
- We ask for the minimum needed for the stated purpose: generally the kind of disposal, the broad offence category, the date, the jurisdiction and whether the individual believes it is spent.
- We do not collect victim identities, witness information, or narrative detail about an incident.
- We keep conviction, caution, charge, allegation, arrest without conviction and acquittal strictly distinct, and never treat them as interchangeable.
- We do not collect motoring convictions unless a specific, lawful, role-related reason exists.
4. Access
Access requires a named role that is granted individually, requires two-factor authentication, and is reviewed quarterly. Ordinary administrators and support agents cannot see this data. Employer-side access requires the employer to have nominated an authorised reviewer for a role that is eligible for a check, and is limited to the specific application.
Every read is logged with the identity of the reader, the reason, and the application it relates to.
5. Retention and erasure
Disclosure records are retained for six months, or deleted as soon as the related application ends, whichever comes first. Guidance records the individual created for their own use are deleted when they ask, or when their account closes.
6. What we do not do
- We are not a government checking body. We do not carry out DBS, Disclosure Scotland or AccessNI checks, and we never present a self-declaration as a completed check.
- We do not allow a search of candidates by offence or offence category.
- We do not disclose spent or filtered information where disclosure is not legally permitted.
- We do not publish or sell any register.
- We do not tell an employer that a candidate is risk-free.
7. Review
This document is reviewed annually, and whenever the law or our processing changes. It is retained for as long as we process criminal-offence data and for six months afterwards.