Offenders who commit crimes when under 25 ‘should not have to disclose them to employers’, report says
The Commons Justice Committee has issued a report where they suggest that offences committed by young people 'do not need to be revealed'
OFFENDERS who committed crimes when they were under 25 should not always have to reveal them to employers, a report by senior MPs suggests.
The powerful Commons Justice committee also claimed some sexual or violent offences committed by under 18s should not always be automatically flagged up in checks.
Calling for a major overhaul of the criminal records system, MPs said the current regime stopped children “moving on from their past”.
Their report said a large chunk of the population were being hindered from getting jobs, education places, homes, insurance and travel visas.
Tory MP Bob Neill and committee chair said the current rules needed to be relaxed.
He said: “Mistakes made as a teenager can follow someone around for decades and create a barrier to rehabilitation, as well as profound problems with access to employment and education.”
Under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, offenders are not required to declare past convictions and cautions once they are “spent” – after a certain period of time has passed.
But there are circumstances when disclosure can be requested, especially when hiring staff to work with children or vulnerable adults.
MPs called for the filtering process - the rules around when someone has to disclose convictions and cautions even though they are spent - to be “radically revised”.
Most sex offences cannot be filtered and the report raises concerns over the implications for children penalised for online sexual offences.
They said: “We do not think that the difficult problem of sexual offending by children is assisted by giving them a record of a non-filterable sexual offence.”
Among their recommendations, MPs suggest cutting the period which must elapse before a childhood conviction can be filtered from five-and-a-half years to three.
Chief police officers should also be given discretion to withhold disclosure, taking into account age and the circumstances of the offences.
And MPs also suggest ministers consider extending the approach to young adults up to the age of 25, possibly “with modifications”.
