What are Spent and Unspent Convictions?
DBS Checks can go into various levels of detail, about a person’s criminal past – including court convictions, police cautions, information relevant to the job held by the local police, and if your name appears on any Barred Lists. There are 3 Types of DBS Check: Basic, Standard and Enhanced (with Barred Lists). If you are applying for a job, some jobs do not require you to mention a past criminal history; but with other jobs it is essential that you do (and it’s a legal requirement in some cases that if you are on the Barred Lists, you cannot seek work, or try to gain work with children or vulnerable adults).
This article will look at the differences between spent and unspent convictions, and this may help you to understand whether you need to disclose your criminal history when applying for a job.
When someone has committed a crime, they will be given a rehabilitation period. This is sometimes months, years or straight away. Once this time has passed, the crime may be ignored, and it will not be on your basic criminal record any more. This length of time depends entirely upon the type of crime that has been committed.
Unspent Convictions
If you are still within the rehabilitation period after committing a crime, your conviction is still classed as ‘unspent’. This typically means the crime is fairly recent. An unspent conviction will show up on Basic, Standard and Enhanced DBS Checks. You are legally required to disclose unspent crimes to employers, or if applying for a mortgage or insurance.
Spent Convictions
A conviction is termed as ‘spent’ once the rehabilitation period is over. These spent convictions do not need to be disclosed to employers or when applying for insurance. A spent conviction will not show on a Basic DBS check; but they will appear on Standard and Enhanced DBS Checks.
When Do You Need to Tell Employers About Your Criminal History?
You need to declare if you have an unspent conviction. You do not need to declare if your conviction is spent. Some jobs will request that you complete a DBS Check as part of the recruitment process. If it is a Basic Check spent convictions will not show. If it is a Standard of Enhanced DBS Check spent and unspent convictions will show. Employers can’t refuse to offer you a job if you have a spent conviction, this is against the law, but they would need to support their choice with other information found on a DBS Check to refuse the job on those grounds.
If you have an unspent conviction, you must mention this on application forms and in interviews if asked. It may reduce the opportunity of you being successful with job applications, but some employers may wish to help offenders gain employment; whilst others job roles may not need a DBS Check.
If you personally want to check that your spent convictions do not show on a Basic DBS Check, you can request a DBS check yourself. It is not possible for an individual to request Standard or Enhanced DBS Checks only organisations can request these on your behalf, and your spent convictions will still show on these two types of DBS Check.
