Thousands of Britons face the prospect of having coronavirus lockdown violations remaining on criminal background checks for the next decade.
While the British government’s Criminal Records Office classifies fixed penalty notices — such as those issued for lockdown violations — as “non-recordable”, people who failed or refused to pay their fines or attend court could have the violations remain on their criminal record for up to eleven years.
According to a Freedom of Information Request from the Transform Justice charity on behalf of the #FairChecks campaign, there were over 3,000 “recordable” instances of lockdown violations between March and December of 2020, alone.
The recordable lockdown breaches will reportedly be visible on Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) background checks, used by some employers in Britain and mandatory for professionals such as doctors and teachers, raising concerns that some may lose out on job opportunities for violating the same lockdown rules Boris Johnson’s government is accused of breaking.
The director of Transform Justice, Penelope Gibbs told the Evening Standard: “Criminal records haunt people long after they have moved on from youthful brushes with the law.
“We need to give everyone a fair chance to move on in their lives and fulfil their potential. Criminal records checks need to be reformed to give everyone another chance.”
The ACRO Criminal Records Office said in a statement: “Fixed penalty notices issued for offences under coronavirus legislation are non-recordable, so whether an FPN is paid or contested, it will not be recorded on the Police National Computer.
“If an FPN is contested in court the court may impose further sanctions including convictions. Those receiving fines are made aware of this in the letter accompanying the FPN.”
Earlier this month, a group of over 40 cross-party MPs and fifteen human rights groups called on the government to conduct an urgent review of all coronavirus fines and prosecutions.
The bipartisan group said that there is “substantial evidence that thousands of people have been wrongfully fined and even prosecuted unlawfully under coronavirus-related legislation.”
According to the civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, who organised the letter to the government, there may have been as many as 25,000 unlawfully issued fines for alleged breaches of lockdowns.
Big Brother Watch Director Silkie Carlo said: “This Government has thrown the country into a rule of law crisis and urgent action is needed to protect justice.
“It is an insult and grave injustice for innocent people who have found themselves wrongly criminalised, whilst allegations of law-breaking engulf Downing Street.”
Members of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government are currently being investigated by London’s Metropolitan Police for alleged breaches of the very lockdown rules they imposed upon the public.
A heavily redacted internal review from civil servant Sue Gray accused the government of “serious failures” in abiding by its own lockdown rules during numerous instances of booze-laden parties in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s residence at Number 10 Downing Street. The government, for its part, has claimed that the gatherings were “work-related” events.
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