The last time you applied for a job, you may not have even noticed the little box on the application form asking if you have any prior criminal convictions. But if you are one of the 17% of the UK population (between the ages of 18 and 52) who has a criminal conviction, then it was probably the first thing you looked at. Ticking that box can make the past an insurmountable barrier for many jobseekers.

As part of BITC's Responsible Business Week, a debate will be held on whether it's time to 'ban the box'. Edwina Hughes, reducing reoffending campaign manager at BITC, explains: "Disclosure of convictions is a massive barrier to getting back into work. But also if one in five people in the UK has a conviction more serious than just a driving offence, then recruiters are actually missing out too... It is literally a tick-box exercise that doesn't tell the recruiter very much about the individual, and doesn't give the individual an opportunity to talk about their skills and abilities."

When BITC approached Alliance Boots about this issue last year, Marco Pagni, group legal counsel and chief administrative officer, quickly took an interest. "We may not think about it day-to-day, but the negative direct and indirect impact of people who spend time in prison and are not able to find employment, leads to re-offending and going back to prison. For every offence, someone is a victim and the effect of that on our communities is huge." Boots now supports the call to ban the box, and indeed has already done so internally. HR were naturally quizzical at first, says Pagni, "But the more we talked about it the more they came to the view that it doesn't really assist in the hiring decision."

However, with 2.5 million people currently unemployed, it is what employers term a recruiters' market. If employers can take their pick, why should they even consider ex-offenders?

"I suppose the answer is, 'why not'?" says Rachel Jones, resourcing manager at Veolia Environmental Services. Even before the BITC campaign, Veolia and Jones were hiring ex-offenders directly from prison. It visits 'suitable' prisons, gives presentations to inmates, and runs 6-12 week courses in recycling and waste management. The inmates that stick it out for the duration are given training in CV writing and interview technique. Local hiring managers are then informed of their availability upon release. In 2012 alone, Veolia hired 30 employees through this route.

"We could look at it and say the market is flooded with candidates at the moment, and it is", says Jones, "but actually there is an element of corporate responsibility for a business of our size. There's also the fact that if we don't [offer] support from a rehabilitation point of view upon release they are going to reoffend. Do we want to keep reading the poor statistics or the bad news stories, or actually do we want to make a difference and support these individuals?"

Jones argues that ex-prisoners also make good job candidates for the very reason that, "you're probably going to get more information on that individual than you would for any other candidate you'll ever interview – wing history, who's visited them... the nth degree of detail."

However, if the box were banned, the recruiter would no longer receive that nth degree of detail. Some young prisoners have never worked before and require a lot of managerial and coaching support. In truth, these are two separate issues, says Pagni: "I think 'ban the box' works on the basis of people who are already in the job market and whether they should be asked to reveal previous criminal convictions or not. In terms of hiring directly from prison or through a resettlement programme, in that situation we automatically know more about them. In the normal course of events, and we're not taking them [directly] from prison, then we should be looking at people on an equal playing field."

Not all employers agree. Pagni is working with Alliance Boots suppliers on this issue and admits, "There are one or two who are very worried about being associated with this agenda because they fear the reaction of their customers – whether business customers or the public... They have told me as much that this is a subject they would not normally broach... but that if the [business customer] broaches it with them, they are very pleased to work collaboratively."

For Jones, as a supplier, the stance taken by Local Authorities varies. "Some of our clients are not open to rehabilitation. Equally with others it is part of the contract that they want us to support rehabilitation and recruit local offenders in that borough." She believes that public sector tendering, "absolutely could include a bigger commitment to rehabilitation."

In a speech last October, David Cameron said the government was reaching out to "companies and voluntary organisations [to] come and help us rehabilitate our prisoners." But BITC argues that much more could be done within public sector recruitment too. "What I would love to see when the government puts out tenders for massive contracts is that they ask those companies bidding to make a commitment to employ ex-offenders in their own workplace", says Hughes.

An argument against banning the box could be that it is unfair to SMEs, far removed from large recruitment and management support systems of Alliance Boots and Veolia. However Hughes argues that, "SMEs are probably much better at this. The pool of people making the decision is smaller and so the perceived risk sits with fewer people to make the [hiring] decision... Timpsons for instance always asks for disclosure of convictions on its application forms, but underneath it says 'This will not count against you in your application'. That is a great alternative. Timpsons employs over 150 people with unspent criminal convictions, proof positive that it can be done.

"We're not proposing that companies have to do this", continues Hughes. "We want to debate it. This isn't about banning disclosure... we're not asking companies to prioritise ex-offenders or give them an easy ride. We're just saying don't discriminate against them automatically – stop using 'criminal conviction' as short-hand for 'bad employee'."

This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox