Asked by: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what arrangements are in place to ensure that individuals convicted of abuse of public office and given custodial sentences are not re-employed in central government departments or agencies of central government.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
All Civil Service recruitment is subject to the Baseline Personnel Security Standard. The Government Baseline Personnel Security Standard check is not a formal security clearance but is a recognised standard for pre-employment screening. These checks ensure departments comply with current legislation (e.g. Right to Work in the UK) and are essential to assure the integrity of our organisation and the safety of staff and individuals.
Once a job offer is made a Basic Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check is undertaken. The certificate will contain details of convictions and conditional cautions that are considered to be unspent under the terms of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.
If the DBS check is returned with a positive marker (an unspent convention in a basic check, any conviction in a standard check), the vacancy holder/department undertakes a risk assessment to decide whether to make a final offer.
Asked by: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people employed by the Home Office have been convicted of abuse of public office and given custodial sentences in each of the past 20 years; and how many of those individuals have subsequently been re-employed in the Home Office or other departments or agencies in central government.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
In the last twenty years there have been 24 Home Office officials who have been convicted of Misconduct in Public Office. All received a custodial sentence, and all were convicted before 2015. Since then, the Crown Prosecution Service have moved towards using more specific charges such as theft, assisting unlawful immigration and bribery.
A breakdown for each year is provided below:
Year | Convicted of abuse of position | Custodial sentence received |
2006 | 1 | 1 |
2007 | 1 | 1 |
2008 | 3 | 3 |
2009 | 2 | 2 |
2010 | 5 | 5 |
2011 | 5 | 5 |
2012 | 3 | 3 |
2013 | 1 | 1 |
2014 | 1 | 1 |
2015 | 2 | 2 |
The Home Office conducts robust pre-appointment checks in accordance with the HMG Baseline Personnel Security Standards prior to employment being offered. The Home Office also carries out National Security Vetting on all its employees, which considers both spent and unspent convictions for this and all other offences.