Changes to filtering rules – Will you still need to disclose your criminal record?

On the 30 January 2019, the Supreme Court directed the government to fix the broken Disclosure and Barring Service system.

The Supreme Court ruled that two aspects of the filtering regime – as it applied to multiple convictions and childhood cautions – was disproportionate and in breach of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Unlock intervened in that case and we were pleased to hear last week the government announce that it intended to fully comply with the Supreme Court ruling on filtering.

The planned changes will remove the automatic disclosure of:

• youth cautions, reprimands and warnings (an out of court disposal issued to young offenders that were replaced by youth cautions in 2013); and
• all spent convictions where the individual has more than one conviction (except where disclosed under the other rules).

We believe that the changes are the first step towards achieving a fairer system that takes a more balanced approach towards disclosing criminal records.

You can read our response to the governments plans, and find out more about the impact these changes will have on you; there’s also a brief guide available to download.

We will be updating this page regularly so keep a look out for new information. Alternatively sign up to our mailing list to receive regular updates.

More information

• Policy work – Find out more about the work we’re doing to challenge the DBS filtering process.
• Questions – If you have a question about this, you can contact our helpline.