Moral turpitude is a legal concept in the US that refers to conduct that is considered contrary to community standards of justice, honesty or good morals. More information can be found here.

A minimum of 12 weeks and anything up to 6 months or longer. It’s recommended that you’re in receipt of your visa before booking your trip to the US. See our applying for a visa section.

Many people with convictions travel to the US every year from the UK, they do not disclose their convictions and they travel without any issues. However, to do this, you will need to lie as part of the ESTA application process and by doing this you are potentially committing a criminal offence under US law. We are not aware of anybody that has been prosecuted for this, but we are aware of instances where individuals have been questioned by officials and sent back to the UK on the next flight (at their own cost).

If your visit is for business, this could have implications on your future employment. Not knowing what would happen if you were questioned can be extremely worrying. For those who are travelling for a holiday, the anxiety could ruin your trip. If you think that it is better to lie on the ESTA, you will need to be prepared to continue the lie if you are questioned face to face by an Immigration Officer in the US. This can be quite a frightening experience.

We get mixed reports from people about their experiences of the US visa process. It’s undoubtedly quite a time-consuming process, and can feel quite intrusive. There are also no clear guidelines available to the public on how the US Embassy will make their decisions, so it’s hard to know whether you will be successful until you actually apply.

From our experience, much will depend on the consular officer that deals with your case, and how you present yourself at the interview. Ultimately, if you decide that you need to apply for a visa, you’ve got nothing to lose by applying. We certainly hear of many people who have been successful in getting a visa and these include a range of convictions and disposals.

If the consular officer denies you a visa and does not recommend a waiver of ineligibility, you may apply again if there is new evidence to overcome the basis for the refusal. In the absence of any new evidence, consular officers are not obliged to re-examine your case.

If you feel that you’ve omitted evidence material to the visa decision, you will need to reapply for a visa and appear at the embassy in person. See our will I get a visa section.

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Home insurers will usually ask a policy holder to disclose the unspent convictions of anybody living at the insured address. If they are buying motor insurance, the insurer will normally only want to know about the unspent convictions of anybody who is going to be driving the vehicle or specifically covered by the policy.

It varies. Although it is easier to use comparison sites, it can be more risky. With convictions, especially for motor insurance, you have to be careful about what questions (and assumptions) companies ask, and that can be more difficult using comparison sites.

Also, sometimes when you tick a certain box on a comparison site (like ‘yes’ to non-motoring convictions) this might not transfer over to the insurer that you end up purchasing through.

So. although it takes more time, it can be better to buy directly with the insurer. What you may decide to do is use a comparison site to get a range of quotes, but then purchase directly from the insurer, once you’ve decided who to go with.

Insurers take many factors into account when providing insurance quotes so it’s not always the case that your premium will increase du to your criminal record. However. it’s always worth shopping around to make sure you get the best deal you can.

You are entitled to ask an insurance company to remove data regarding spent convictions under the Data Protection Act on the basis that it is no longer necessary. When this point is may depend on the company – for example, if they don’t require changes to be notified during a policy (thereby meaning somebody who obtains a conviction during the policy doesn’t have to notify them until renewal) then it is likely that they wouldn’t treat an existing policy as without convictions until the next renewal.

Although under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (ROA) a question about convictions can be treated as a question about unspent convictions, and an insurer cannot rely on spent convictions to disadvantage an application, an insurer can rely on a non-disclosure made to a previous insurer even if the subject of the non-disclosure was a conviction which is now spent.

There was a case in 2010 in which a judge ruled in favour of an insurer to cancel an insurance policy mid-term after a non-disclosed conviction came to light. In this case, the claimant had a prior completely unrelated conviction for criminal damage, which he failed to disclose to a previous insurer before it was spent. Subsequently his new insurers relied on his earlier dishonesty as being a factor which entitled them to void his insurance policy. However, there were several other, arguably more serious factors against him such as previous false claims. The judge commented that a single false statement might not have been considered to be significant.

As a result of this, our view is that if you’ve previously had insurance refused or cancelled because of non-disclosure of a conviction that was unspent at the time, this is something that an insurer might use in the event of a claim or a dispute. You should therefore, when asked about ‘refusals or cancellations’, explain this to the insurer. In our experience, ‘good insurers’ will recognise that, because this now relates to something that is spent, there isn’t a problme. However, it’s better to take this approach than it is in paying for insurance which does not actually protect you, your property or a third party.

Occasionally, we hear that people have received letter from their bank, notifying them that they’re closing their account. Often, people think this is because it’s linked to their recent conviction. Sometimes this may be the case, but it can be hard to prove. There doesn’t seem to be any consistency in this area, especially given that banks may not always know about convictions. If you think this might have happened to you, our advice would be to ask the bank directly, and ultimately make a complaint. If you don’t get anywhere, you can then make a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Credit ratings agencies do not have access to criminal records. However, as part of the background checking by banks and others, they might check fraud databases such as CIFAS. Also, if you’ve been in prison for some time, you might have a poor credit rating simply because you’ve not been financially active.

Many areas have schemes to help people on low incomes to pay deposits. They can be called Rent Deposit, Rent Guarantee or Bond Guarantee schemes. They can offer a grant or a loan to pay the deposit, or a guarantee (often for a set period such as a year) to pay the landlord if you don’t pay the rent or you owe money for any damage.

The schemes may be run either by the Council or a local charitable organisation. They all have different rules, and they may or may not be helpful for people with an offending history. Some Councils also have money in their Homelessness Prevention Fund to help with deposits, and some Probation services have money set aside for this at the moment.

The best places to find out if there is a scheme in your area are the Crisis website or your local Council and Probation service.

Rent deposit schemes usually don’t offer money for these. Other places to try are Credit Unions (you save with them, then can borrow money at low interest rates), or local Councils. Because homelessness prevention is part of their role, local Councils sometimes use their money to help people to get a private house or flat, if they would otherwise be at risk of being homeless.

No, unless you have a conviction for a financial crime. Private landlords often check credit checking agencies, and this should not reveal information about convictions for other crimes.

Disclosure will not necessarily stop you being granted leave to remain. The type of offence, the length of sentence, your immigration history and any patterns in re-offending will be taken into consideration. If you fail to disclose, then this could be seen as an attempt to deceive the UK Visa and Immigration Department.

Yes you will. Most overseas convictions are treated as through they happened in the UK.

This would normally only occur if you travelled without prior notification or in breach of a foreign travel order preventing you from travelling outside the UK – therefore, committing a further offence. In the event you had fulfilled your commitment to notify (and therefore travelled with implied permission) there should be no reason for UK police to disclose your conviction or communicate with foreign law enforcement. There is currently only limited routine sharing of criminal record information across states (based around risk assessments); primarily within the EU.

‘No Trace’ means that you have no convictions, reprimands, final warnings, or cautions held on the Police National Computer.

‘No Live Trace’ means that there is criminal record information held on the Police National Computer but it has been ‘stepped down’. Anyone who sees this, can see that you have a criminal record from your past, even if they can’t see details.

See more about how ‘No Live Trace’ might be used by agencies such as the US Embassy on our information on police certificates.

If the information is held abroad you would have to contact the embassy of the country concerned or that country’s data protection authority.

If your information is held in the UK, you are covered by the Data Protection Act, so you can apply for the information they hold on you from that country’s embassy.

All the time you are out of the UK you are considered to be ‘unlawfully at large’ and your licence will stop.

If you returned to the UK, your licence would start again and you would be liable for recall to prison for the length of time you have left on licence. See our section travelling abroad whilst on licence.

For most jobs (and insurance) you don’t need to disclose your criminal record once it’s ‘spent’. This is because of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. Most convictions will become spent at some point. We have a tool that can help work this out (disclosurecalculator.org.uk) or visit unlock.devchd.com/information-and-advice//roa for guidance. Some jobs involve standard or enhanced DBS checks. For these, you’ll normally need to disclose spent convictions and cautions as well, unless they are now filtered by the DBS.

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The level of check an employer carries out is very important, particularly if you have spent convictions, as these wouldn’t be disclosed on a basic DBS check. We have general guidance on common job roles and the level of checks required.

Unlock has developed an Establishing Eligibility Process (EEP), to help you establish what type of check a particular position is eligible for. This will help you to challenge an employer if you don’t believe they are entitled to carry out a particular level of check.

You should start by working through the Unlock Establishing Eligibility Process to satisfy yourself that the position you are applying for is not eligible.
If you have completed the application form but it has not yet been submitted to the DBS, you could contact the employer or Umbrella Body to say that you no longer wish to give consent. If you do this, it is likely that an employer will withdraw the job offer.
If the application has been submitted to the DBS, you should raise this as a query with the DBS as an ineligible check.

There are a couple of reasons why this may have happened.
Prior to early 2006, the police were able to delete records entirely after a certain period of time, depending on the nature of the offence. This was possible under the old ‘weeding’ guidelines. If you had a CRB check done prior to 2006 that came back clear, it is possible that your offences were either deleted or may not have been recorded in the first place.
In 2006, the police stopped deleting records and introduced a new policy referred to as ‘step-down’. Individuals could apply to the police to have their criminal records ‘stepped-down’ so they wouldn’t be disclosed on standard or enhanced checks. The step-down procedure was stopped in October 2009 following a Court of Appeal decision, meaning that anybody who had previously had their records ‘stepped-down’ now have them back on their DBS certificates. There is further information on our retention and deletion of police cautions and convictions page.

The police can choose to disclose details of the criminal convictions of somebody living in the same house as you under ‘police intelligence’. This may include somebody on Home Detention Curfew. The police would need to be able to demonstrate that it was relevant to the job you were applying for before disclosing on an enhanced certificate.

Before an employer can check the status of your DBS Certificate, you would need to have signed up for the Update Service (this costs £13 per annum). To check the status, an employer will need to:-
– Have your written or verbal consent
– See the original certificate to check it is the same type and level as they are legally entitled to
– Check your identity
– Have the DBS Certificate reference number

As of 20th February 2020, the DBS made it possible for employers to pay for an individuals basic DBS check. When you apply online, you’ll be able to select the ‘someone else is paying’ option. You’ll receive an email that contains a payment link which you can then forward to your employer. The check can be paid for by debit or credit card, Apple Pay or Google Pay.

Not automatically, and in fact very rarely. An FPN is not a conviction. However, on an enhanced check, the police can decide whether to disclose it as part of their local police information. Assuming that the FPN is recorded on your PNC entry, it could be disclosed if the police felt it was relevant, although in most cases it is unlikely.

Your offence has likely either been deleted or was never recorded on the Police National Computer. As you know that it’s not going to appear on a criminal record check, there’s no reason for you to disclose it to any employer if you are asked.

Your offence might still show on a standard or enhanced check, even if it’s never been disclosed before. This is because ‘step down’ was removed in 2009 and has been replaced by the filtering process.

Details of any conviction, irrespective of how minor, will remain on the PNC until you reach 100 years of age. However, as you were under the age of 18 at the time and this is your only conviction, your biometrics (DNA and fingerprints) will be automatically deleted after 5 years (plus the length of any prison sentence).

For most jobs (and insurance) you don’t need to disclose your criminal record once it’s ‘spent’. This is because of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. Most convictions will become spent at some point. We have a tool that can help work this out (disclosurecalculator.org.uk). 

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Changes were made to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 through the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012. The changes came into force on the 10th March 2014.

Please note: The Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014 is a separate piece of legislation which is focused on changes to Probation and rehabilitation services.

The changes are retrospective. This means they apply to everybody, irrespective of when they received their caution/conviction. For example, if you were convicted in 2001 and given 3 years in prison that would now be treated as being spent, even though at the time it could never be spent. Further information can be found here.

If a conviction was treated as spent before the 10th March, it stays spent and isn’t affected by the changes. This is important in a small number of cases where the rehabilitation period has lengthened as a result of the changes. It only applies to a small number of cases, particularly where individuals have received multiple summary offences, and where individuals have received Detention and Training Orders. We have kept the old version of the law available on our Disclosure Calculator, for people to use if they think this affects them. You should use the Calculator to work out any convictions that were dealt with before 10th March 2014. Anything that is spent before that point can be discounted. Anything that carries forward should be entered into the Calculator again, but this time using the new rules, to work out when they would become spent.

If you can’t find the information on our long list of sentences/disposals and how long it takes for them to become spent under the ROA then, you should email your enquiry to the Ministry of Justice at general.queries@justice.gsi.gov.uk.

No. If you’re confident that the job isn’t ‘exempt’ from the Act, you are allowed to ‘withhold’ the details of any spent convictions. This means that even if the employer asks you about ‘all’ or ‘spent’ convictions, you don’t have to disclose any that are spent. The employer in question should also be encouraged to change their question to make this clear for future applicants. We follow up on examples like this, so please send us the details and we’ll contact them (we won’t reveal who told us!)

So long as the job/role/service that you’re applying for is covered by the Act, even if you get asked to disclose spent convictions, you don’t have to. For example, if you’re applying for house insurance and get asked “Have you got any spent convictions”, you can withhold details of any spent convictions. In other words, you can ‘legally lie’ when answering the question. Find further information here.

Usually, it will be fairly obvious. For example, all types of insurance are covered by the Act. Most employment positions are too. Those jobs/roles that are not covered by the Act should say so. You might see application forms say that the role is ‘exempt’ from the Act – this will normally mean that the role is not covered by the Act, so the organisation is allowed to know about spent convictions too. These are jobs that do standard or enhanced DBS criminal record checks.
However, not everyone gets it right. Some employers and volunteer bodies might ask about spent convictions when they’re not allowed to, it’s not always obvious whether a particular job or role is covered by the Act or not. We have a detailed section on eligibility, which gives some advice about the types of things to look for, as well as a link to the Government’s guidance on eligibility.

You can do this by getting a ‘basic DBS disclosure’ from the Disclosure and Barring Service. It costs £25 if you go directly to them. Some companies online offer this service for an additional cost – they essentially take your data and then transfer it to the Disclosure and Barring Service, so you’re normally better-off just going directly to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

The Disclosure and Barring Service is responsible for providing basic DBS disclosures under the laws of England & Wales. If you have any technical questions about how they work, how to apply for one etc, you can email the Disclosure and Barring Service at customerservices@dbs.gsi.gov.uk. More information about basic DBS disclosures and how they work is available here.

Our remit is specific to England & Wales. There is no longer an independent advice service operating in Scotland (that we know of) since funding for the Apex Scotland helpline was withdrawn. However, Disclosure Scotland have confirmed to us that they’re able to respond to queries. You can email Disclosure Scotland at PVG.Enquiries@scotland.gsi.gov.uk.

You only have to disclose your record to an employer if they ask you. Many employers ask at some point and if your convictions are unspent, you legally need to disclose them. If they ask you and you don’t disclose, they could later revoke the job offer or you could be dismissed. You could even face a further conviction.

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• If you’re applying for a job and are being asked to do a standard or enhanced DBS check, the onus should be on the employer to establish what makes the role eligible (with reference back to the legislation if necessary). The way the legislation is structured means that all positions are eligible for a basic DBS check. Only if the role meets certain requirements does it mean that it’s eligible for a standard or enhanced check.
• If you don’t think the employer is entitled to a standard or enhanced DBS check, it’s normally only worth challenging this if all your convictions are spent. If any of your convictions are unspent, even if you are successful in your challenge, the employer will be entitled to require a basic DBS check.
• If an employer insists on doing a standard or enhanced DBS check, and you have tried (or don’t feel able) to challenge them, you should consent to the check and then raise a query with the DBS through their eligibility query process.
• If you’ve got police intelligence held about you, and you’re applying for an enhanced check, you shouldn’t disclose it unless you have reason to believe that it will be disclosed by the police (e.g. it’s particularly relevant to the role, or it’s been disclosed in the past in similar situations). Once the enhanced DBS check is returned to you, you will then know whether the police have decided to disclose it, and you can then make a decision as to whether to either (a) seek a review of the police force’s decision, or (b) disclose this information to the employer.
  

• One of the most important things is to be sure what is on your police record – get a copy if you’re not sure.
• There is rarely a right or wrong way to disclose your convictions. It is very much down to what you most feel comfortable with doing. This will depend on the details of your convictions, as well as the type of roles you are applying for.
• So long as you are not disclosing more than what you need to (i.e. spent convictions for jobs not exempt from the ROA), it usually pays to be as honest and open as you can be, at the earliest (but also most appropriate) opportunity.
• If you disclose, you should try to keep a written copy of what you have disclosed (providing the employer with that too) so that you have this in case it comes up again in the future.
• If you’ve not got cautions or convictions, and only allegations or other ‘local police information’, it’s unlikely that it will come up on an enhanced DBS check. Now that DBS checks get sent to you, you will know whether or not the police has decided to disclose it.

• There are very rarely any hard-and-fast rules about what employers must do in response to criminal records.
• Generally, employers respond best when convictions are disclosed face-to-face, when you get a chance to explain the circumstances and try to alleviate any immediate concerns that they may have.
• We regularly speak to people with convictions who have managed to find employment in all different sectors and professions. These cases continue to show us that there are many employers out there who are willing to give people a chance. The numbers of these types of employers may not be as high as we’d like, but it shows that you should never give up – if you continue trying, you will eventually find an employer than is willing to look beyond your conviction and employ you because they think that you are the best person for the job.

You only have to disclose your record if you are asked. If you are asked, and you don’t disclose, you could be committing a criminal offence. If you are also on licence, you could be recalled for failing to disclose. Read more about this.

There is no fixed “best time” to disclose, despite what some people think. It always depends on your conviction, the job you are applying for, and the recruitment process.
You have options – you can disclose before application, on the application form, before interview, at interview, after interview, after job offer or once you start. There are pro’s and con’s to all of these approaches. You need to think about how to disclose your record to an employer. Click here for more information.

Yes. As an applicant, you have very few rights. You may be able to explain why you didn’t disclose, but the employer may feel you have tried to be dishonest. Many employers don’t have an issue with the conviction, but they feel like you’ve tried to be dishonest by witholding your criminal record. We have further information on our spent and unspent convictions and employment law page.

It depends what you were asked about when you first took the job and what is in your contract.

You really only have to tell your employer about criminal convictions if this could have an impact on your employer and your ability to do your job.

However, there may be circumstances where because of the nature of the organisation or work that you do, that a criminal conviction could be relevant. For example if you work for a Government body or were in finance and you were convicted of a criminal offence of say, dishonesty, then this could be relevant to your employer.

It is also worth looking at what information you disclosed when you first started working for them. Most employers ask questions relating to criminal convictions. Furthermore, they will often ask that you make them aware of any changes to the details that you provided in the application form. If you are made aware of an ongoing duty to disclose when you first take up employment, then you must inform your employer of any conviction obtained subsequently.

If you did tell your employer, it is possible that they would try to dismiss you. If they did decide to do this, then you could try to argue unfair dismissal and they would have to justify the reasons for the dismissal and that it was fair in all circumstances. If your conviction had nothing whatsoever to do with your particular role or the organisation, then it would appear difficult to justify this in the circumstances. However, cases that we have dealt with leave us to suggest that often employers will try any means possible to justify your dismissal. You can find further information on our receiving a criminal record whilst you’re in employment page.

It depends what you were asked about regarding your criminal record when you first took the job.

If you have any unspent convictions, these will show up on a basic DBS disclosure check and, by definition, a check means that the employer wants to take criminal records into account and, where necessary, dismiss individuals.

If it was a condition of your job that a basic DBS check would be done, then you will have to consent to this or risk your position.

In addition, if you were asked about unspent convictions when you took the job, it would be difficult to challenge an employer who wished to confirm this information with a basic DBS check, although if they didn’t make this a condition of your employment then you shouldn’t have to pay for it.

If you have been employed for more than two years, and you weren’t asked about your criminal record when you took the job, you should be able to refuse to consent to the check, and you might have a strong claim for unfair dismissal should this cost you your job. However, unless you are in a union that would be prepared to fund an Employment Tribunal claim, in practice you might not be able to pursue it because of the demands it would make on you. The other potential problem is that the employer might argue that the dismissal was fair because it was on the basis of an unspent offence. You could counter this argument by stating that you were not asked when originally employed. For this reason, you should tread warily. (Have a look at our information on spent and unspent convictions and employment law).

You should seek legal advice before agreeing to anything. At the very least you should be asking the employer in writing why the checks now and what the employer intends to do with the information. The written replies might be useful in contesting matters at a later stage, but verbal replies would be no good. Depending on the legal advice and the information you get from the employer, you might be better off refusing the request. This might lead to your dismissal, but you might have stronger legal grounds than you would if you were dismissed on the basis of the basic DBS disclosure check.

If they are disclosed on a criminal records check, then it may well be to your advantage to discuss them in further detail to enhance your chances of success. A refusal may be lawful beyond the facts of the disclosure but may look evasive. We have further information on when and how to disclose.

Did they ask you about any cautions or convictions when you first started work? If not, you should be able to withhold consent.

If they did ask, did you disclose? If yes, have you got proof that you disclosed? If you have, doing a check should not affect your job.

If they did ask and you didn’t disclose, its up to the employer to pursue the matter as they see fit.

If the job is covered by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act, then you will have some protection, especially as your conviction is spent. Section 4(2) of the ROA states:-

‘The person questioned shall not be subjected to any liability or otherwise prejudiced in law by reason of any failure to acknowledge or disclose a spent conviction or any circumstances ancillary to a spent conviction in his answer to the question’

This means that if you are asked questions about being dismissed or whether you have been subject to disciplinary action and answering the question would flag up your spent conviction, then the ROA suggests that you answer ‘No’ to this question.

Firstly, try to establish whether the employer will be doing any type of formal criminal record check and, if so, what type of check .

If you’re unsure about the details of your criminal record and can’t work out whether it’s spent, or you don’t have enough information to decide whether it’s eligible for filtering, then completing the form will be difficult.

If you choose not to disclose your conviction to the employer and it subsequently shows on your certificate, then the employer may see this as a breach of trust and could withdraw the job offer.

If you do disclose the conviction and it doesn’t appear, either because it’s spent (in the case of a basic DBS check) of has been filtered from a standard/enhanced DBS check, then you’ve made the employer aware of something that legally they have no right to know. Hopefully, it will make no difference to the employer or to the job offer and they will disregard it. However, it’s important to realise that it could.

Only you can decide what the best option for you is.

We would always recommend that before you start applying for jobs, or to college/university or when purchasing insurance, you find out about your criminal record. You can do this by applying for a subject access request (SAR). Once you have this, you’ll be able to work out what you should or should not disclose.

Yes you should disclose when asked. You can use a disclosure statement to assist you. You can refuse but this will not look good, and could affect your chances of obtaining the job. The interviewing panel will have their responsibilities under the Data Protection Act, so your interview will be treated as confidential.