The High Court has today found that part of the new arrangements for criminal records check are unlawful. Despite changes that were made following the T v Chief Constable of Manchester litigation in 2013 and 2014, the Court (McCombe LJ and Carr J) found that the changes still required too much disclosure.
The new changes were introduced in May 2013, following T v Chief Constable Manchester in the Court of Appeal (the case later proceeded to the Supreme Court where it also succeeded). Those changes narrowed the circumstances in which full disclosure would be required. However they left in, amongst other things, people who had more than conviction.
In its judgment today the High Court has accepted that that will sometimes be disproportionate. It heard argument about cases where the convictions were old, committed when people were young and, in particular, where there were two convictions arising out of essentially the same set of circumstances. Requiring disclosure in those circumstances would sometimes be disproportionate.
A copy of the judgment may be found here. Hugh Southey QC and Nick Armstrong acted for the Claimants, instructed by James Welch of Liberty and Mike Pemberton of Stephensons. Hugh, Nick and Mike Pemberton also acted for T in T v Manchester.
You can hear Hugh Southey QC discussing the case of T in his interview.