Press Information
Date: 10th September 2010
Criminals, Competence and CDM
The period of time that lapses before an ex-offender's conviction is spent should be slashed, according to a report by crime reduction charity Nacro.
The case for change will be highlighted shortly at the House of Commons on 13 September with a campaign and report called Change the Record.
The present situation with any custodial record of more than two and a half years simply must be disclosed for life, and this is the situation too even if the offence took placed before an offender reached the age of 18. For offences under two and a half years there is a sliding scale for the spending of offences.
Nacro is now calling for a change in the regulations so that only life sentences would have to be disclosed for life, and then deal with with most other sentences as being spent within four years for adults over the age of 18. Nacro want the four year period to be less for the under-18s.
From data, one in four adult males in the UK has a criminal record. This can be a major barrier to finding work. Sentence inflation has meant that offenders are now receiving longer sentences for more trivial offences than in the past. It would be interesting to also know the relative ratios of the various industries ~ traditional belief is that the construction industry is often a good place for ex-offenders to be employed in some way.
According to a survey of 2,000 people by Nacro, those aged 18-24 felt that possessing a criminal record was the fact that they would be most ashamed to tell an employer, with 59 per cent naming it. A previous conviction was seen as more shameful than having a mental health problem (54 per cent), being fired from a previous job (41 per cent) or bankruptcy or debt (39 per cent). Perhaps the reason why the construction industry may be seen as a good place for ex-offenders to find work may be the less formal checks that employers make, and many construction workers are self-employed which helps to conceal a criminal record, frequently move on from site to site etc.
Jackie Lowthian, Nacro’s director of policy, said:
"People who have a record are aware that their past will count against them in the job market. Yet the truth is that many people who commit an offence move on. Work is the most effective way of preventing offending."
“It’s not surprising that having a criminal record is a source of such shame. People who have a record are aware that their past will count against them in the job market. Yet the truth is that many people who commit an offence move on”
"Work is the most effective way of preventing offending. If we don’t provide the right help to these people, and the right advice to employers, we are throwing good people with valuable skills on the scrap heap.”
Minor offences such as fines and cautions for shoplifting, theft, driving offences remain on your record as well as more serious crimes.
David Jones, CDM2007.org’s Editor-in-Chief, comments:
“In October 2009 under the Private Members’ Bill procedure in Parliament a back-bench MP got his proposal read which then, unexpectedly, became law three months later in January 2010 … this is now the Health & Safety (Offences) Act which drastically increases the sentencing powers of the magistrates.”
“This new law completely replaces the sentencing tariff of offences under the Health & Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 with a new, greatly uplifted and increased tariff level of sentences including lengthy custodial too.”
“Anyone who is in control of an organisation undertaking construction or who in any way manages construction operations MUST ensure they are competent to do so. CDM law requires it. Anyone who designs construction works MUST be competent also, and designers and those who manage property after the construction phase has ended also MUST be competent and have a duty to consider the users of the workplaces they control too!”
“Competence is key ~ indeed, it’s absolutely essential ~ the construction site is a dangerous place and anyone who has any business around construction operations or who needs to be on a construction site simply MUST ensure they are all appropriately competent. There is no excuse for incompetence!”
The team at CDM2007.org have recently developed a unique online tool which is known as the “COMPETENCE REGISTRY” to assist all in the construction industry to have the means to properly prove their competence ~ and it’s FREE for all to use. Users simply have to register themselves onto the website at www.CDM2007.org to then be able to use this new tool.
The users are able to record all their various qualities that go together to make up their own testimony to being competent ~ and all of this then is given the opportunity to be verified by independent third party endorsement, giving the users’ record real meaning to thos who commission them or others in the teams they may come together to work with.
Users of the “COMPETENCE REGISTRY” are able to get a printed transcript of their achievements which is timely and dated making it of real benefit in terms of relevant information around the team. Particularly essential for Team Managers who need to understand the risk profile of their teams relative to the project.
The CDM2007.org platform provides online modular training to public services and organisational teams in construction safety across the UK who make up the various duty holders under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations. Additionally CPD (Another CDM2007 requirement) can be listed and maintained on the system together with all the relevant knowledge proof.
David Jones, CDM2007.org’s Editor-in-Chief, further comments:
“I urge all to get a proper work record ~ not a criminal record ~ get properly trained to do the job safely, and be able to prove it.”
“I urge all who are at the head of the supply chain and who are the Clients who commission and appoint persons to design and / or manage construction works to ensure they properly understand what they need to look for and then make sure those who they then appoint actually are competent.”
“Health and safety law is fundamentally the reverse to most other law in the UK in that, in the event of a prosecution for breach of health and safety law, there is a general presumption that the accused individual or organisation will be found at fault if it is proved that the relevant provisions of the appropriate code was not followed. Thus it’s so easy to get a criminal record in this way!”
“There is currently no clear definition of competency … For construction operations Appendix 4 sets out the base-line core criteria for all personnel in the industry, and Appendix 5 sets out guidance on other additional qualities needed for a CDM Coordinator on more complex projects or one with high or unusual risks Confusion exists in how the criteria are being applied”
Ends
Issued
10th September 2010
by CDM2007.org, a business project of the
London
Borough of Bromley,
For more information
David Jones
: Editor-in-Chief / Deborah Alexander: Administrator
T. +44 020 (8) 461 7551
M.07958 959133 for David
info@cdm2007.org
david.jones@cdm2007.org
Notes to Editors:
Launched in May 2007, CDM2007 was originally developed as a business project by the London Borough of Bromley, and provides unified on-line modular CDM2007 training to public and private sector organisations and enterprises across the UK. The training addresses the need to provide credible proof of competence, in accordance with the CDM2007 Regulations and Corporate Manslaughter & Corporate Homicide Act 2007.
