Minor offenders to have records wiped clean

Convictions resulting in a non-custodial sentence will be filtered from record checks after 11 years for adults and five and a half years for young offenders.

Cautions will be filtered from record checks by the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS), formerly known as the Criminal Records Bureau, after six years for adults and two years for young offenders.

Serious violent and sexual offences, offences with a jail sentence and some other offences will remain on checks. A conviction will only be filtered if there is no other offence on the individual’s record.

The changes, announced by the Home Office in March, come after the Court of Appeal ruled that the law that requires people to disclose all previous convictions to certain employers breached human rights.

The move will affect thousands of volunteers and workers who apply for jobs that require a DBS check each year including teachers, doctors, nurses and care home workers.

It means that old and minor cautions and convictions will no longer appear on checks, which employers request for positions where the applicant will be working unsupervised with children and vulnerable adults.