UK plan lets child offenders drop lifelong criminal record disclosure

Children convicted of robbery, supplying drugs to other children or violent disorder will not have to tell employers about those offences for the rest of their lives, under proposals unveiled by the UK government. The changes would apply in England and Wales and cover any crime committed while the person was under 18. The plans are out for consultation.

Justice minister Jake Richards framed it as a fairness fix. "Where it's safe, we believe as a government, people should have second chances," he told the Guardian, adding that the current system doesn't distinguish between offences committed as a child and those committed as an adult. The wider package aims to cut the number of children behind bars and pump more support into those who are convicted.

The headline measure trims the list of offences that trigger lifelong disclosure on standard and enhanced DBS checks. Violent disorder, supplying drugs to a child, robbery, affray and actual bodily harm committed under 18 would no longer mean automatic lifetime disclosure. Anyone convicted of those offences without a custodial sentence would have to disclose for five and a half years; a sentence of two years or less would mean 11 years. Longer custodial sentences would still carry a lifetime obligation.

Fines are getting a rewrite too. A conviction resulting in a fine would no longer need to be disclosed at all, replacing the current six-month rule. The proposals also end automatic disclosure of out of court resolutions and scrap a rule that lengthens the time it takes a conviction to become spent if someone is convicted of a second crime during their rehabilitation period.

Standard and enhanced DBS checks gatekeep teaching and early years work, social work, healthcare and transport jobs including taxi driving, so the change would reach a wide slice of the UK workforce. Campaigners have welcomed the move, pointing to youth employment gains. Companies describe criminal convictions as the second biggest barrier to hiring people from disadvantaged backgrounds.