The social exclusion agenda has been enthusastically embraced by policymakers across Europe. A key feature of this agenda is the emphasis on paid work as a mechanism of social inclusion. However, the UK government is about to implement the Police Act (1997) which will increase the access of employers to the criminal records of job applicants. The author investigates how employers currently respond to job applications from offenders, and examines the likely impact of this new legislation on their recruitment. The key findings are that the Police Act will heighten discrimination against offenders, undermining the policy focus on combating social exclusion. This contradiction reflects the increasingly punitive response of successive UK governments to those committing criminal acts, and the narrow way in which social exclusion has been defined.
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