Can I Hire a Candidate who has Criminal Information on their DBS Check?
DBS checks are a part of commonplace recruitment processes with most organisations. They give relevant background information on job candidates, allowing the company to make an informed decision on a prospective employee; in order to protect their business, staff, and customers. But what should you do as a recruiter, if a candidate looks perfect for the job, with the exception of the fact that criminal information has come back on their DBS check?
Assess the Risk
If a job candidate has criminal information showing on their DBS, it is up to you at this point to assess the risk to the organisation and its customers. When assessing the risk, you can consider how long ago the crime was committed, the type of crime, and the threat this poses to the company and customers.
Depending on what age the person was at the time of committing the crime, and the type of offence, determines how long a criminal record lasts for. If someone is under eighteen and commits a crime, their record is cleared after five and a half years. If they were over eighteen at the time of committing a crime, it takes eleven years for the record to clear. Cautions take two years to clear for people under eighteen; and six years for over eighteen-year-olds. If a crime related to violence or was a sexual crime, or terrorism; then these will never be removed from a record.
You then need to decide whether to appoint the candidate to the role or reject their application. It could be that you need to speak to the candidate tactfully and diplomatically, in person or by phone, to ascertain more information regarding their past.
Hiring an Employee with a Criminal Record
The situation should be assessed on an individual basis. If a person committed a relatively minor crime a long time ago, but has been an upstanding citizen ever since, and has a lot to offer your company, you should not automatically disqualify them, but consider whether they have value that they could bring to the organisation. If the criminal history was a long time ago, and more importantly seems irrelevant to the job role, you may decide to hire the candidate.
If you do hire the candidate who has criminal information on their DBS, this information MUST be kept confidential from employees and colleagues; this information cannot be shared.
Rejecting a Candidate because of their Criminal Record
Similarly, if you decide to reject an applicant based on their DBS criminal information, you CANNOT EVER let other people at the company know that this was the reason for not hiring them. Again, this is confidential information. You need to treat this confidential information sensitively with the utmost discretion. Legally you are within your rights to reject a candidate upon discovering a criminal history. If you have employed someone who had not declared their criminal past, and it was later discovered, you are within your rights to terminate that employee.
Safeguarding Children and Vulnerable People
If your candidate has a criminal record that shows offences relating to children or vulnerable people, or they appear on a Barred List, then you cannot ignore their past offence. For example, if someone with past offences against children applied for a job at a school or college, their application should be rejected. You are legally obligated to reject their application, because by hiring them you would not be fulfilling your safeguarding responsibilities to protect children or vulnerable people.
Take every person’s DBS Check on an individual basis, using your discretion with the sensitive information, to make the best decision for your company.
