Trans CRB check newsPosted by Zoe O'Connell in Equality on 26 September 2011
http://www.complicity.co.uk/blog/2011/09/trans-crb-check-news/Following the recent controversy with Liberal Democrat conference accreditation, I have been doing some research into the Criminal Record Bureau's (CRB) own procedures into dealing with Trans folk. The procedure has been recognised as problematic by the CRB themselves as a recently published equalities impact assessment, dated October 2010, hilighted the issues with the current system. (PDF Link)
From the CRB's own research in 2010, (PDF Link) there is evidence people are being put off – 91% of people overall would be "willing to to be CRB checked" for either voluntary or paid work, versus 65% for trans folk. It's noted that the findings are from a "small sample size", but Intersex folk had a similar response and it is also broadly in line with the general rate of applications revealed in previous FoI requests. Other marginalised groups have similar findings – the Lesbian/Gay (But not Bisexual, oddly) community, Hindus and to a lesser extent those identifying as Asian also reported they were less likely to be willing to be CRB checked.