The Register aims to reduce the cost of theft and fraud as well as providing a time-saving device and a deterrent against dishonesty, by allowing employers to check prospective employees against the Register. Many major retail companies, including Harrods and Selfridges, have signed up to the scheme. The scheme is also expected to be extended beyond the retail industry, to cover the leisure industry, construction and road haulage groups, but there is no detail as to when this might be.

However, despite the potential benefits, the scheme has attracted much criticism. To be entered on the Register, an employee does not need to have received a criminal conviction, or even to have been investigated by the police. It is enough that the employer suspects the employee of a dishonest act. This obviously leaves the scheme open to abuse by employers with a grudge against a particular employee, or it could be used to blacklist employees, for example those employees who the employer believes to be leaving the company to work for a competitor. There may well be instances when the employer was simply wrong in their suspicions.

The Register is expected to hold an employee’s name, address, national insurance number, previous employers and even photographs for up to five years. This raises obvious concerns over identity fraud. There is also a risk of claims of defamation if an employee feels that their reputation has been damaged by an untrue or unfair inclusion on the Register.

The AABC Group has consulted the Information Commissioner’s Office to ensure that the Register complies with the Data Protection Act 1998, and individuals will have the right to change their entries if they are inaccurate.  However, many individuals may not even know they are on the Register.

Whilst signing up to the Register may initially look attractive to employers not wishing to employ dishonest employees, employers should be wary and fully consider all the potential consequences use of the system may bring. The risks are clearly too much for some high profile companies which had previously been reported to have signed up for the scheme, but who have recently publicly distanced themselves from the Register. The Home Office has also disassociated from it, having cut its financial ties with the AABC Group in 2007.