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September 5 2014

Criminal Record Checking System Under Scrutiny by the Courts

In the case of R (on the application of T) v Secretary of State for the Home Department, the Supreme Court had to decide whether the UK's criminal records system breached the right to privacy contained in the European Convention on Human Rights (Article 8). The Court of Appeal decided that disclosing all their convictions and cautions without considering their relevance in an employment contest was disproportionate and breached Article 8. The Supreme Court upheld the Court of Appeals decision, finding that the existing criminal records scheme provided no means of filtering information so only those convictions|cautions relevant to a particular job application were disclosed.