DBS checks were in the news again recently, as three people went to the UK’s highest court over criminal convictions. The three said that their human rights were being breached by having to declare convictions from decades ago. Standard and enhanced DBS checks list all past convictions and cautions. The lawyers argued that is simply not fair. The court agreed, and ruled that disclosing old or minor convictions could indeed be an infringement of human rights. So how will this affect your next DBS check?
What human rights are being breached?
The case was brought to court by three people who had offences recorded when they were legally defined as youths. They argued that it was very unfair that they were still dragging around these minor offences up to 30 years later. Court figures show that in the past five years, more than a million youth offences dating back over 30 years have been put on DBS certificates. In some cases, people have no formal convictions at all, just cautions. The judges in the Supreme Court agreed that it was unreasonable to expect people applying for DBS checks to have to disclose these very old, or minor, offences.
The DBS Application Process
There are two issues here around DBS checks. People who are
applying for a basic DBS check only have to disclose convictions and cautions which are not considered “spent”. The length of time for something to be spent depend on the type of offence, and your age at the time. Once “spent”, by law you don’t have to tell an employer about your conviction in most cases.
Standard and Enhanced DBS checks are different. People who are applying for positions of responsibility, or to work with children or vulnerable adults have a more stringent tests. So their entire police record could be printed on the certificate, as long as police consider it relevant. In many cases, the police err on the side of caution. Their job is to protect the public. That means that on balance, they’d rather print an old shoplifting charge or conviction for assault than take the risk. It also puts applicants in the tricky situation of not knowing what is going to be disclosed.
So what happens next?
A criminal justice charity thinks this new ruling could affect thousands. However, nothing will happen right away. The DBS will have to rethink its processes, and work out how to make changes in light of the Supreme Court ruling. For people who have already got a DBS certificate, there will be no immediate change. There are no plans to reissue certificates with new information. In the future though, there is a good chance that these types of offences won’t have to be declared at all, whatever the level of DBS check. Watch the press, and look on the DBS website for announces about changes of policy. Unfortunately, any change has to be driven by the government. Parliament is tying itself in knots over Brexit at the moment. Until that mess is fixed, it’s likely nothing will happen over DBS checks.
