Some offences set to be cleared from DBS checks

Subject to an agreement by parliament, the Home Office has made steps to exclude certain old and minor cautions and convictions from a DBS Certificate.

This change comes after the Court of Appeal judgement earlier this year which states that disclosing all cautions and convictions on an individuals’ criminal record is an infringement of Human Rights.

The DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) have been working closely with the Home Office to begin the legislative process which will remove some old and minor convictions and cautions from a DBS Certificate. The following filtering rules have now been put before parliament for consideration;

An adult conviction will be removed from a criminal record certificate if;

(i) 11 years have elapsed since the date of conviction

(ii) It is the individuals’ only offence and

(iii) It did not result in a custodial sentence.

However, information will only be removed if it does not appear on a list of specified offences and if an individual has committed more than one offence then details of all convictions will always be included on a DBS Certificate.

An adult caution will be removed from a criminal record certificate if;

(i) 6 years have elapsed since the date of the caution (and if it does not appear on the list of specified offences.)

For those under 18 at the time of the offence:

(i) a conviction received as a young person would become eligible for filtering after 5.5 years (unless it is on the list of specified offences, a custodial sentence was received or the individual has more than one conviction. )

(ii) a caution administered to a young person will not be disclosed if 2 years have elapsed since the date of issue (only if it does not appear on the list of specified offences.) Please note, these changes will not come into force until after the legislation has completed its passage through Parliament. We will keep you informed of the outcome, but until then there will be no changes to the DBS Checking process.