Rehabilitation of offenders to be boosted by removing barriers to employment.

Published 15 July 2019 From: Ministry of Justice

Ex-offenders striving to turn their lives around through work will be backed by new legislation changing what they must disclose to employers.

For the first time, some sentences of over four years will no longer have to be disclosed to employers after a specified period of time has passed. This change will not apply where offences attract the most serious sentences, including life, or for serious sexual, violent and terrorism offences.

Regular work is a major factor in breaking the cycle of crime but many ex-offenders find it impossible to get a job, with just 17% in employment a year after release from prison, and as half of employers would not consider hiring an ex-offender.

In addition to the rule change for longer sentences over four years, the period of time for which shorter sentences and community sentences have to be revealed to employers will be scaled back. The exact length of these ‘rehabilitation periods’ will be determined following discussions with stakeholders. 

The proposed reforms recognise that the longer someone goes without committing a further crime, the lower the risk they will reoffend.

Secretary of State for Justice, David Gauke, said:

The responsibility, structure and support provided by regular work is an essential component of effective rehabilitation, something which benefits us all by reducing reoffending and cutting the cost of crime.

That’s why we are introducing reforms to break barriers faced by ex-offenders who genuinely want to turn their lives around through employment.

While these reforms will help remove the stigma of convictions, we will never compromise public safety. That is why separate and more stringent rules will continue to apply for sensitive roles, including those which involve working with children and vulnerable adults.

Currently, where a sentence of more than four years is passed, crimes committed decades earlier, including those committed as a child, must be disclosed to employers for the remainder of the offender’s life. For example, an individual sentenced to a lengthy sentence for theft half a century ago would still have to tell employers to this day. 

This creates a disproportionate barrier to employment which prevents ex-offenders from moving on with their lives.

In his review into the treatment of and outcomes for BAME individuals in the criminal justice system, David Lammy MP found that current rules are “trapping offenders in their past, denying dependents an income, and costing the tax-payer money.”

The Government has acted in light of his recommendations, as well as those of the Justice Select Committee and of Charlie Taylor made following his review of youth justice. The reforms set out will be introduced as new legislation when parliamentary time becomes available. 

They will only apply to non-sensitive roles, with separate and stricter rules for those working with children or vulnerable adults, as well as national security roles or positions of public trust. 

Notes to Editors

• Detailed proposals on how we will amend the ‘rehabilitation periods’ for shorter custodial sentences and non-custodial sentences offences will be set out following engagement with stakeholders later this year.
• The rules for sensitive roles are subject to a recent Supreme Court judgment, to which the Government will respond later in the year. We are looking closely at this as we move forward with reforms to the disclosure regime.
• Only individuals who have stopped offending will have their convictions spent.
• If an individual reoffends during their rehabilitation period, they will have to disclose both their original and subsequent offences to employers for the duration of whichever rehabilitation period is longer.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt will attend the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels on Monday 14 July to reinforce UK concerns about Iran’s reduced JCPoA compliance and stress the ongoing work needed with partners to keep the deal in place.

It comes after he spoke with both the Chief Minister of Gibraltar and the Iranian Foreign Minister on Saturday to discuss the recent detention of the Grace 1 oil tanker, and agree the importance of finding a resolution to the current situation and avoiding further escalation.

Speaking ahead of the FAC, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said:

The Middle East is already one of the most unstable regions in the world, but if the different parties were armed with nuclear weapons it would represent an existential threat to mankind. I will do everything in my power to prevent that from happening.

Today I’ll be building on the leadership shown by the UK, alongside France and Germany, as we do what it takes to maintain the nuclear deal, and to work to encourage Iran back into compliance.

Referring to the detention of Grace 1 in Gibraltar, he added:

As I said to the Iranians this weekend, the detention of the Grace 1 was a Gibraltar-led enforcement of EU Syria sanctions. Action had to be taken, and this was nothing to do with the oil being Iranian.

Moreover, following recent tensions in the Gulf, the Foreign Secretary will stress the importance of international norms of freedom of navigation. Mr Hunt said:

Following the brave work of our Royal Navy in the Persian Gulf we will work with partners to maintain the right of commercial ships to go about their rightful business.

ENDS

Further information

In a joint statement, the leaders of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom said:

The new ‘public health duty’ will cover the police, local councils, local health bodies such as NHS Trusts, education representatives and youth offending services. It will ensure that relevant services work together to share data, intelligence and knowledge to understand and address the root causes of serious violence including knife crime. It will also allow them to target their interventions to prevent and stop violence altogether.

In addition, the government will amend the Crime and Disorder Act to ensure that serious violence is an explicit priority for Community Safety Partnerships, which include local police, fire and probation services, by making sure they have a strategy in place to tackle violent crime.

Prime Minister, Theresa May said:

We all have a role to play to tackle serious violence and stop the needless loss of young lives.

Alongside tough law enforcement we also have to stop children being drawn into crime in the first place.

Our new legal duty will ensure all agencies work together to share intelligence and identify warning signs, so we can intervene earlier and protect young people.

This new public health duty has been created taking into account responses from professionals in health, education, police, social services, housing and the voluntary sector after an eight-week public consultation.

The new duty will hold organisations to account as opposed to individual teachers, nurses or other frontline professionals.

It does not mean burdening them with police work, but is designed to build on existing responsibilities and local arrangements to protect young people by ensuring they work together.

New guidance will also be published in due course to support the legislation, which will provide examples of different partnership models and explain how different organisations and sectors can partner with each other.

Similar public health approaches have been used in Scotland and Wales, which both bring together every part of the system to support young people and make targeted interventions before they commit violence or are groomed by gangs.

Home Secretary, Sajid Javid said:

Violent crime is a disease that is plaguing our communities and taking too many young lives.

It’s crucial that we all work together to understand what causes violent crime in the first place, so we can intervene early and prevent this senseless bloodshed.

I’m confident that a public health approach and a new legal requirement that make public agencies work together will create real, lasting long-term change.

Javed Khan, Chief Executive Officer of Barnardos said:

Barnardo’s has long called for the government to take urgent action to tackle knife crime and end the tragic loss of life on our streets.

Youth violence is an epidemic threatening our children but today’s announcement by the Home Secretary is a step in the right direction. Local agencies like schools, health services, police Local Authorities and youth offending teams must work together to keep children safe. However, it’s vital public bodies receive the resource they need to carry out these responsibilities effectively.

If we are serious about resolving youth violence, we must work together to address the root causes. A public health approach to tackling knife crime and serious violence is part of the government’s focus on early intervention, as set out in the Serious Violence Strategy, which was published in April last year.

In addition, the government also announced in October last year a new £200 million Youth Endowment Fund to be delivered over 10 years to help prevent young people being drawn into a life of crime and violence.

The announcement comes ahead of the next meeting of the Prime Minister’s Ministerial taskforce, tomorrow (Monday) which will hear from young people on the government’s Youth Advisory Forum about first hand experiences of serious violence.

Children will have a greater opportunity to access 60 minutes of daily sport and physical activity, whether that be in school, after school or during weekends and holidays, under new Government plans revealed today.

The School Sport and Activity Action Plan, outlined by Education Secretary Damian Hinds, Sport Minister Mims Davies and Minister for Public Health, Seema Kennedy, will set out a range of new measures to strengthen the role of sport within a young person’s daily routine, explain how teachers and parents can play their part, and promote a joined-up approach to physical activity and mental wellbeing.

It comes after the latest data from Sport England’s Active Lives Children and Young People survey showed that a third of children are currently doing fewer than 30 minutes of physical activity a day.

Ofsted’s new Inspection Framework comes into effect from September 2019. As Amanda Spielman, HM Chief Inspector of Education, said last weekend: “Schools that offer children a broad, balanced education, including plenty of opportunities to get active during the school day and through extracurricular activities, will be rewarded under our new inspection regime.”

As part of the plan, the Government has committed to launch a series of regional pilots to trial innovative approaches to getting more young people active, particularly less active groups such as girls and those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Schools and sports clubs will also work together to share their facilities and expertise, giving more pupils access to character-building competitive sport and volunteering opportunities. They will focus on ensuring boys and girls have an equal and coordinated offer of sport, competition and activity, including modern PE lessons and access to high-quality clubs and competitions after school and during weekends and holidays.

The pilots will be joint-funded by the Department for Education and Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport through Sport England, and are expected to run from September 2020.

Secretary of State for Education, Damian Hinds, said:

As a parent I want my children to be happy and healthy. As Education Secretary, I want young people to leave school prepared for adult life. Sport can help with both – it not only keeps pupils fit and healthy but helps them grow in confidence and learn vital skills, such as teamwork and recovering from life’s inevitable setbacks.

My ambition is for every pupil to have the chance to find a sport they love, setting them up to lead healthy, active lives and equipping them with the skills to reach their full potential, both inside and outside the classroom.

Minister for Sport and Civil Society, Mims Davies, said:

Sport has such an incredible power to have a hugely positive impact on children’s lives. It increases their physical and mental wellbeing, helps them achieve at school and teaches important life skills such as working as a team, developing the confidence to try new things and taking leadership.

“I urge schools to put sport and physical activity at the heart of every school day, creating a cultural shift where it becomes routine in the daily lives of young people.

Our plan will help shift the dial in school sport – making lessons more fun and engaging and vitally increasing the number of out of school clubs so that more young people get and stay active.

The Department for Education has also committed £2.5 million in 2019-20 to deliver extra training for PE teachers, help schools open up their facilities at weekends and during the holidays, and expand sports volunteering programmes to give more young people the opportunity to become sports leaders and coaches.

Sport England will invest an additional £2 million to create 400 new after-school ‘satellite clubs’ to get more young people in disadvantaged areas active, as well as additional funding to better coordinate sport programmes and competitions for young people.

The plan will build on the £1 billion that the Government has invested since 2013 to improve sport in primary schools through the PE and Sport Premium. This funding has already helped schools give more choice to their pupils – Bolton on Swale Primary School in North Yorkshire asked pupils what activities they wanted to try and used its PE and Sport Premium to offer canoeing, volleyball, climbing and table tennis. Sport England is also investing £194 million in children and young people between 2016 and 2021.

New research published tomorrow by the Department for Education found that nine out of ten primary teachers surveyed thought the confidence, knowledge or skills of all staff in teaching PE had increased since the PE and Sport Premium was doubled in 2017. Eight out of ten thought that the proportion of pupils doing 30 minutes of exercise a day in school had increased, while the same proportion said their pupils had more competitive sport opportunities.

Public Health Minister, Seema Kennedy, said:

Making exercise both fun and accessible to all children is a key part of healthy development.

Obesity is on the rise, and schools have a vital role in achieving our ambition to halve childhood obesity by 2030. The sugar tax is already funding school sports across the country and we are encouraging all primary schools to get their pupils active for a mile a day as part of our world-leading childhood obesity plan.

This pledge is a vital step in making sure that our children grow up healthy, active and happy. The School Sport and Activity Action Plan will build on these successes, increasing access to sport and activity for every child so they can reap all the health benefits this brings.

CEO of Sport England, Tim Hollingsworth, said:

This year we conducted the biggest piece of research ever into children’s activity and found that physically literate children are happier, more resilient and trusting of other youngsters. We also found that enjoyment is the biggest single factor that motivates children to be active above competence or knowing it’s good for them.

We are delighted to be working at the heart of the new School Sport and Activity Action plan to embed those learnings, as well as making it easier for schools to offer more activities during the school day and after lessons not least through creating another 400 new Satellite Clubs and a This Girl Can workout resource for teenage girls.

Every child has the right to be active and find an activity they love. And the School Sport and Activity Action Plan is a great step forward.

The Government and Sport England will work with a range of sporting bodies including the Football Association, Premier League, England and Wales Cricket Board and the Rugby Football Union to ensure that their clubs and programmes can reach even more children, encouraging them to get active by focusing on fun, enjoyment and increasing confidence.

All schools will be urged to recognise how physical literacy and high-quality, modern PE lessons can benefit other aspects of school life and improve pupils’ behaviour, wellbeing and attainment. They will also be encouraged to use sports leaders and mentoring schemes to ensure pupils have a say in developing their schools’ sports offer. Schools will be encouraged to offer a range of activities that appeal to young people from different backgrounds, including girls and less active groups.

Drawing upon the successful This Girl Can campaign, which has inspired over 3.9 million women and girls to take steps to get active, Sport England will also provide £1 million to develop a digital resource for girls. This will include a new Netflix-style library of workout videos that can be used in schools and PE lessons.

By making sport and exercise an integral part of pupils’ daily routine, the School Sport and Activity Action Plan will aim to increase the amount of time children spend being active, boosting their physical health, mental wellbeing, character and resilience.

The Chief Medical Officers’ guidance on daily physical activity levels sets out that children should do at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day. Schools should ensure all pupils have access to 30 minutes of physical activity every day, which are currently delivered through PE lessons and lunchtime sports clubs as well as innovative activities such as The Daily Mile, and building in activity to classroom lessons, with 30 minutes also delivered outside the school day.

More detail on the actions in the plan will be published later this year.