Criminal records: an overview

A criminal record is a list of crimes of which someone has been convicted in a magistrates’ court or the Crown Court. The information is held on the Police National Computer (PNC). Local police forces may also keep their own records.

Technically, any criminal offence an individual is convicted of in a court forms part of their criminal record. In practice, however, many motoring offences – eg, speeding, careless driving, and failing to provide driver details – do not appear on a criminal record.

Although there are some exceptions, generally only criminal offences which carry a prison sentence go on a criminal record, as set out in the ss 27 and 118 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 and the National Police Records (Recordable Offences) Regulations 2000.

If an individual accepts a caution as an alternative to prosecution, this forms a part of their criminal record and can be used as evidence of bad character if they are prosecuted for another crime. Unless a conviction is a certainty, therefore, a caution should not be accepted.

The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (ROA 1974) is aimed at helping people who have lived on the right side of the law since being convicted of a criminal offence.

Under ROA 1974, all cautions and convictions (except those resulting in prison sentences of more than 30 months) are regarded as ‘spent’ after a certain amount of time and the offender is regarded as rehabilitated. The time it takes for a caution/conviction to become spent will depend on the sentence passed. Those with spent convictions are treated as if s/he has never committed an offence and, they are not required to declare their caution(s) or conviction(s), for example, when applying for employment or insurance.

People with multiple convictions, especially serious conviction may not benefit from ROA 1974 unless the convictions are very old.

If a person has been convicted of an offence for which a sentence of more than 30 months was imposed (regardless of how much time they actually spent in prison) their conviction can never be spent. As it remains an unspent conviction, this person must always disclose their conviction when asked about their criminal record.

Certain convictions are deemed ‘spent’ under ROA 1974 after certain periods of time (see the table below). This is known as the ‘rehabilitation period’ – the period is halved where the offender was under 18 at the point they were convicted.

When applying for the following jobs, spent convictions must still be disclosed: certain roles in the financial services sector, law enforcement, the prison service, the health service, private security, etc. Also, roles involving work with children, the elderly, and disabled. These exceptions are listed in the legislation Exceptions Order to ROA 1974.

• A new conviction will have no bearing upon the rehabilitation period of an unspent conviction unless it is a more serious offence, in which case the unspent conviction will only become spent once the new conviction is spent if later than it otherwise would have become spent.
• A conviction incapable of becoming spent also renders earlier unspent convictions incapable of becoming spent.
• Two plus prison sentences handed down simultaneously by a court: if sentences concurrent, then treated separately with individual rehabilitation periods. However, if consecutive, then single term with one rehabilitation period.
• If a person is dismissed as a result of a spent conviction, they can bring a claim for unfair dismissal at an employment tribunal.

The Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly the Criminal Records Bureau and the Independent Safeguarding Authority) is responsible for processing requests for criminal records checks retained on the PNC (DBS checks) from employers and licensing bodies.

Standard and enhanced DBS certificates will include details of convictions and cautions (which include youth cautions, reprimands and warnings) recorded on the PNC. Some PNC information relating to cautions and convictions will be ‘filtered’ and will not appear on the certificate. Click here to find out when a conviction or caution will be filtered.

The DBS also decides whether a person should be placed on or removed from a barred list. If someone is placed on a barred list, they are prohibited from working in specified sectors.

Determining the suitability of a person with a criminal record for a position (both paid and unpaid) will vary, depending on the nature of the post and the detail of circumstances of the conviction. Unfortunately this is not an exact science. Assessing an individual’s skills, experiences, and conviction circumstances should be weighed against the risk assessment criteria for the post.

It is recommended that an employer should consider the following when deciding on the relevance of offences to particular posts:

• Does it involve one-to-one contact with children and/or vulnerable groups as employees, customers, and clients?
• What level of supervision will the individual receive?
• Does the post involve direct contact with the general public?
• Does the post involve direct responsibility for finance or items of value?
• Will the nature of the post present opportunities for the individual to re-offend in the place on employment (bearing in mind that anyone, convicted or not, can commit a crime)?

The answers to these questions should help an employer to determine the relevance of any convictions to specific posts. For example, paedophilia or child pornography offences will most certainly disqualify a person from working with children; some violent offences would be relevant to positions involving unsupervised contact with the general public; fraud should be considered in relation to financial positions; and theft should be considered in warehouse jobs.