Dr. T.J. McIntyre:

The big issue here is not so much central State records but rather media reports. What one has seen in the past few years are a great many newspaper archives, in particular from local newspapers, going online. As such, people's old convictions for assault from 20 years ago might now be visible. A great many court reports have gone online. If someone has a conviction from 15 years ago for a serious offence that is mentioned in a High Court judgment, that is suddenly searchable in a way that it was not previously. What has happened, anecdotally at least, to many people is that they have been caught out. Information that had been in the past has suddenly become a great deal more visible because it is now on the front page of the Google search against their name. I do not have any statistics on it - this is purely anecdotal - but I have heard more and more complaints from people who feel it is unfair that information that had been buried has resurfaced.