This Tuesday, the Council of Ministers approved a royal decree by which it modifies the Central Registry of Sexual Offenders and Trafficking in Human Beings. It is a free but non-public database, which brings together those convicted of crimes against sexual freedom, and which prevents these people from working with minors. In the text, advanced by ABC and to which EL PAÍS has had access, includes the possibility that both companies and professional associations or entities, including volunteer entities, can request, with the permission of the interested person, a certificate from the registry “when necessary for the hiring and exercise of the employment relationship or activity.” Thus, as stated in the explanatory memorandum, “periodic control is facilitated,” preventing “people convicted during the exercise of these professions or activities from being able to remain in them.” Until now, workers were the ones who had the obligation to provide a negative certificate of sexual history before beginning their professional performance in that company or entity, therefore, it was possible that the history would arise later and this situation would go unnoticed by the employer.
The royal decree provides five modifications, as explained by the Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes, Félix Bolaños, in the press conference after the Council of Ministers. The first is that from now on the antecedents will not only include crimes against sexual freedom, but also those involving human trafficking, regardless of the age of the victim and the purpose of the trafficking. Therefore, the registry is renamed the Central Registry of Sexual Offenders and Human Trafficking. The second concerns the way in which this certificate is obtained. The current system establishes that any worker who has frequent contact with minors cannot have a criminal record for sexual crimes. However, the certificate is provided by job candidates before starting work. A document that was not updated, as Bolaños explained.
“We have detected cases of people who, after working with minors [y haber aportado el certificado en el que constaba que no tenían antecedentes penales] They committed crimes,” said the minister. “We are modifying the regulations and we are also going to allow companies, institutions, NGOs or professional associations, with the consent of the worker, to update or obtain a criminal record certificate in real time. In such a way that we will have an effective, periodic control of the records for sexual crimes or now also linked to human trafficking,” he added. Companies or entities may request a negative sexual history certificate, making it easier to detect if someone already hired has been subsequently convicted of a sexual crime or trafficking. According to Bolaños, this reform reduces the bureaucratic burden and, “above all, it prevents sexual offenders who may work in contact with minors much more effectively.”
The royal decree establishes that, in the event that there is no “express consent” from the interested person (that is, the worker or the person who is going to carry out activities in contact with children) that enables companies and entities to access to this registry, the certificate may only be issued at the request of the person themselves, and not by companies or entities.
This reform is a development of the Organic Law for Comprehensive Protection of Children and Adolescents against Violence, approved in 2021, which included a broad package of measures to protect minors against any type of violence. The law contemplated modifications to this registry. Among others, for example, it was established that professions, trades and activities that involve regular contact with minors are understood to be all those that entail “repeated, direct and regular treatment, not merely occasional, with children or adolescents, whether paid or unpaid.” ”. It was also stated that, if there was a history, the entities (also voluntary) had to immediately dispense with that person. And, in addition, it was established that instead of the Central Registry of Sexual Offenders it would be called the Central Registry of Sexual Offenders and Trafficking in Human Beings. But the royal decree that regulates this registry had not yet been updated.
In addition to the two modifications already mentioned, the royal decree approved this Tuesday also adapts to the Sexual Freedom Law (it no longer speaks of sexual abuse, but of sexual assault). And it incorporates three other new features. On the one hand, minors between 16 and 18 years old will be able to directly request their certificate; until now, their parents or guardians had to do so. “Now those minors between 16 and 18 years old, who on many occasions, especially in summer, have jobs that make them come into contact with minors, in summer camps or as lifeguards, will be able to directly request the certificate,” Bolaños detailed.
On the other hand, the reform will allow “streamlining” the certification regime between different countries of the European Union. The minister explained that in cases in which the person who intends to work with minors is not Spanish, but comes from another EU country, two certificates are required to guarantee that he has no criminal record, the Spanish one and the your country of origin. Sometimes, the latter “took weeks, it took months,” Bolaños noted, “longer than the job offer.” “Now we are going to interconnect the European criminal record registry with the Spanish one, in such a way that in one unit of act the certificate is requested both in Spain and in the corresponding European country,” he specified.
Until this modification, it could also happen that a European citizen had a negative criminal record certificate in Spain, but did have one in his or her country of origin. From now on, until the complete certificate is available, that is, in Spain and in your country of origin, the sexual history certificate will not be obtained, with the aim of preventing, in the European area, someone from being able to escape from crimes committed in another Member State. As stated in the royal decree, the person in charge of the registry will be the one who must collect the criminal information recorded in the country of nationality of the worker, in order to include it in the certificate. The minister has stated that a procedure that previously took weeks or months can be done “in minutes.”
Finally, the royal decree will also equate the regime by which the criminal records of any conviction outside our country are canceled to the Spanish regime. As Bolaños explained, there are countries with “different” regulations and in which the cancellation of criminal records “occurred very late or never occurred.” Now the deadlines are adapted to the Spanish regime. For example, as stated in the royal decree, when the victim of the crime is a minor and the convicted person is of legal age, the cancellation of these records is carried out when 30 years have passed, counting from the day following the end of compliance. of the sentence, as long as during that time he has not committed another crime against sexual freedom or trafficking in human beings.
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