You do not necessarily need to disclose your entire criminal record to anyone. Your criminal record and what you must disclose are not the same thing. You should not disclose information that you do not need to; what an organisation is entitled to know about you governs how much you need to tell them yourself.
A useful page on the Unlock website here outlines the questions you should ask yourself with regards to answering employers’ questions about a criminal record. For further support, you can contact the Unlock helpline. The helpline will be able to assist you in deciding whether you’ve been asked appropriate questions and how best to proceed.
Find out when your criminal record becomes ‘spent’, and whether you need to disclose it to employers and others.
Disclosure CalculatorIt is a serious issue if an organisation is asking questions in a way that leads to you disclosing information that they are not entitled to hold. However, it should be noted that employers are, in specific circumstances, exempt from this under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act if the role(s) for which they are recruiting allow for higher level checks that would disclose spent convictions that are not, themselves, protected. Further information on this can be found in the glossary.
Where organisations do not make it clear what information you are required to disclose, they may unintentionally end up with more information than they are entitled to. For example, asking for information on all convictions, without making it clear that only unspent convictions need to be included or whether they are eligible to also hear about anything not protected. They shouldn’t use this information when making a decision about you, so clarifying any confusing or erroneous questions being asked makes sure that you only disclose the necessary information.
It is important to understand that in most cases an organisation is only entitled to ask about unspent convictions and would only be able to conduct a Basic DBS check. Only employers recruiting for specific roles such as certain profession, regulated roles or those involving working with vulnerable adults or children are entitled to additional information. For further information visit our website here; this will help you determine whether an employer is asking you appropriate questions based on the nature of the job in question. Asking for information that is excessive to the circumstances of a role may even be the prelude to them carrying out ineligible checks (more detail on this, and what to do if you think you’ve been subject to an ineligible check, is elsewhere in the next chapter of this toolkit).
It is worth noting that, during a recruitment process, it is our view that you should only disclose information if it is requested – generally, if you are not asked about your criminal record we would not suggest voluntarily disclosing. However, there are exceptions to this rule: for example, it may be a requirement of license conditions that you share certain information in specific situations. In addition, some insurance companies make assumptions about your criminal record in the terms and conditions of policies, and it may mean the policy is invalid if you have unspent convictions that you did not disclose. To check whether you need to be proactively telling them about unspent convictions, check the policies and speak to them directly.
There may be situations where you choose to disclose information about your criminal record, even when you are not asked about it. For example, if you are applying for a role which is a ‘peer’ role where lived experience is relevant.
