Do I need to declare criminal convictions? (2023)

Do you have to disclose a criminal conviction?

You only have to disclose your record to an employer if they ask you. Many employers ask at some point and if your convictions are unspent, you legally need to disclose them. If an employer asks and you don't disclose, they could later revoke the job offer or you could be dismissed.

Most will only ask for unspent convictions, although some might ask for 'any convictions in the last 5 years'. If it's spent, you do not need to disclose it under any circumstances when applying for insurance.

It's illegal not to declare these convictions if asked. Remember: a criminal record refers to convictions, cautions, warnings and final reprimands. It doesn't include fixed penalty notices, penalty notices for disorder, or any other police or out-of-court disposal. WHAT IS DISCLOSURE?

If your employer were to discover your conviction, you may be dismissed if you had not informed them of it. For employers who don't make it clear whether you should disclose convictions received during employment, then there is no legal obligation on you to do so.

Standard DBS check

The certificate will contain details of both spent and unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings that are held on the Police National Computer, which are not subject to filtering.

If the person was 18 years of age or older at the time of the offense (i.e. legally considered to be an adult), then the conviction will be expunged from their record 11 years after the conviction date (not the offense date).

Simply having a criminal record does not prevent you from getting a job. In a limited number of cases, certain convictions may prevent you from working in certain roles, but, you are likely to already know about this if it applies to you.

Depending on the role, employers may be required to check whether you have a criminal record. These roles will be subject to a satisfactory disclosure from the Disclosure and Barring Service (known as a DBS check).

For adults, if a custodial sentence was less than 6 months, it is now spent after 2 years after the sentence is completed. Custodial sentences of 6 months – 2.5 years are spent after 4 years, and custodial sentences of 2.5 - 4 years are spent after 7 years. Sentences over 4 years are never spent.

On application, the Royal Mail Group will require your consent to carry out a basic criminal record check as part of the recruitment process. There is also a list of 'unspent' criminal offences that are considered unacceptable in new employees.

What jobs can you not do with a criminal record?

Convictions resulting in a custodial sentence will always be disclosed on a DBS check, no matter how much time has passed. Cautions for non-specified offences that are more than six years old will no longer show on your DBS certificate.

Employers can check your criminal record no matter what role you apply for. This is called a Disclosure and Barring Service ( DBS ) check. For certain roles an employer can request a more detailed DBS check, for example if you'll be working with children or in healthcare.

All convictions resulting in a custodial sentence, whether or not suspended, will always be disclosed. Youth cautions, warnings and reprimands will not be disclosed automatically on a Standard or Enhanced DBS certificate.

Since 2006, the police retain details of all recordable offences until you reach 100 years of age. Your conviction will always show on your police records but the conviction may not show on your criminal record check that is used for employment vetting purposes.

Protected convictions or cautions are convictions or cautions which are filtered during the DBS check process - this means that they will not appear on the DBS certificate. It used to be the case that all convictions and cautions would appear on a DBS check, until this practice was successfully challenged in court.

A Basic DBS Check reveals any unspent convictions and conditional cautions. An unspent conviction is one that hasn't met the specified period set out for the conviction to be considered spent, as set out by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

The chief officer will take into account the police record of any 3^rd party who is either a partner or lives with the applicant of a DBS check. They will need to decide if it is reasonable and proportionate to disclose this information and at all stages of the process, they must record their rationale.

You can apply to have your criminal record expunged when: a period of 10 years has passed after the date of the conviction for that offence. you have not been convicted and sentenced to a period of imprisonment without the option of a fine during those 10 years. the sentence was corporal punishment.

Unspent convictions will be highlighted on every DBS check level, so if you do have an unspent conviction, it may be worth considering applying for jobs that don't require a check to get you into employment as soon as possible.

What is classed as a criminal conviction?

A criminal conviction applies to all convictions, cautions, reprimands and final warnings. This includes minor misdemeanours, such as: spent sentences, cautions, and any matters currently under investigation.

Under Section 19 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, FDIC-insured banks are prohibited from hiring any person who has been convicted of a crime involving "dishonesty, breach of trust, or money laundering," unless they obtain consent from the FDIC.

Once a caution, reprimand, conviction or final warning is spent, you don't need to disclose it to most employers. It is against the law for an employer to investigate spent convictions unless you are applying for a job which is exempt from this Act.

Your application will be automatically rejected if you have ever been convicted or cautioned for a range of serious offences or have previously been dismissed from the police service. These include: Any offence that has resulted in a prison sentence (including suspended or deferred)