The claimant challenged the terms of an enhanced Criminal Records Certificate issued by the defendant. He had been warned in 2002 for suspicion of theft of two cycles. The record had been stepped down in 2009, but then re-instated. He wished to enter a sports studies degree.
Held: The application for review was unsuccessful. Parker J said: ‘I feel constrained by binding authority to conclude that the challenged provisions of the 1997 Act are compatible with Article 8 ECHR, although if I had not been so constrained I would have found that the present system that allows no exceptions and provides no mechanism for review was disproportionate and not compatible with Article 8.’
Parker J described principles he derived from the cases and the 1997 Act: ‘the so far as concerns information under Section 115(6)(a)(ii) of the 1997 Act there is a two-stage procedure to determine the proportionality under Article 8 of disclosure. First, the information must be considered potentially relevant to the decision for which disclosure is required and secondly disclosure should be made only after consideration of other factors . . The person to whom information relates must also have an opportunity to make representations about whether the information is reliable and relevant and whether, in all the circumstances, it ought to be disclosed. However, in my respectful opinion, Lord Neuberger made it clear at paragraph 76 that this two-stage procedure did not apply to convictions and cautions. In the case of convictions and cautions, the information in question is almost certain to be correct and the information conclusively evidences the commission of a criminal offence. There might be debate about the relevance of the conviction or caution to the decision for which disclosure is required in any particular case but in that event the prospective employer is at liberty and under current legislation entitled to know that the prospective employee has committed a crime, and to assess for herself any potential risk in offering employment to that person. ‘
Parker J
[2012] EWHC 147 (Admin)
Bailii
European Convention on Human Rights, Police Act 1997 113B 115(6)
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Chief Constable of Humberside Police and Others v The Information Commissioner and Another CA 19-Oct-2009
Complaints had been made that the police were not deleting from their criminal records very old records of minor convictions. The police appealed against a finding that they should do so under Data Protection Principles. The Police had used a policy . .
Binding – L, Regina (On the Application of) v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis SC 29-Oct-2009
Rebalancing of Enhanced Disclosure Requirements
The Court was asked as to the practice of supplying enhanced criminal record certificates under the 1997 Act. It was said that the release of reports of suspicions was a disproportionate interference in the claimants article 8 rights to a private . .
Cited – Carson, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions; Reynolds v Same HL 26-May-2005
One claimant said that as a foreign resident pensioner, she had been excluded from the annual uprating of state retirement pension, and that this was an infringement of her human rights. Another complained at the lower levels of job-seeker’s . .
Cited – Mosley v The United Kingdom ECHR 10-May-2011
The claimant complained of the reporting of a sexual encounter which he said was private.
Held: The reporting of ‘tawdry allegations about an individual’s private life’ does not attract the robust protection under Article 10 afforded to more . .
Cited – F and Another, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for The Home Department SC 21-Apr-2010
The defendants had been convicted and sentenced for offences which under the 2003 Act would mean that they stayed permanently on the Sex Offenders’ register without possibility of a review. The Secretary of State appealed aganst a finding that the . .
Mentioned – Bouchacourt v France ECHR 17-Dec-2009
The applicant had been sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment for rape and sexual assault on minors. His name had been placed automatically on a Register of Sexual and Violent Offenders, and had had to confirm his address every year and to give notice . .
Mentioned – Wilson, Regina (on the Application of) v Wychavon District Council and Another CA 6-Feb-2007
The claimants said that an enforcement notice issued against them under a law which would prevent such a notice against the use of a building as a dwelling, but not against use of a caravan as a dwelling, discriminated against them as gypsies.
Cited – Animal Defenders International, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport HL 12-Mar-2008
The applicant, a non-profit company who campaigned against animal cruelty, sought a declaration of incompatibility for section 321(2) of the 2003 Act, which prevented adverts with political purposes, as an unjustified restraint on the right of . .
Cited – Security Industry Authority v Stewart and Sansara Admn 17-Oct-2007
Various parties challenged the granting and withholding of licenses to operate as door supervisors (bouncers). The SIA regulated the grant of licences, and published criteria for their grant. It had been said that the inclusing of very minor . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Police, Human Rights
Updated: 10 November 2021; Ref: scu.451001