Information about criminal records
Criminal records show details of all:
These are held on the police national computer (PNC) for any child or adult. This information is only deleted when a person reaches 100 years old.
A conviction means that the child has been sentenced in a court.
A Youth Caution (there are two types) is given when someone admits an offence but was not dealt with in court. These are also called out of court resolutions or diversionary disposals. They are usually for minor offences.
The law states that people who have convictions or cautions have been rehabilitated after a certain amount of time. The length of time depends on:
Click here to see how long before a conviction is spent.
Yes and No.
Usually when people refer to someone having a criminal record it means they have an unspent convictions or caution. When people apply for most jobs, they only have to tell their employer about unspent convictions or cautions.
However, there are certain jobs, that employers are entitled to ask for a standard or enhanced criminal record check. This could be, for example, if the job involves working with children and vulnerable adults. Employers would need to know about all convictions, cautions and relevant allegations. Sometimes cautions and a first conviction can be filtered out. The law changed in November 2020. Since then, a standard or enhanced criminal record check will not automatically give information on: