Politicians and justice campaigners are calling for a change to the criminal records checking system. They say the widespread release of minor historical offences does not protect the public and leaves people with no opportunity for a clean slate.
More than a third of the childhood offences set out in Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) certificates in 2021 happened more than 40 years ago. The oldest was a 74-year-old conviction for simple larceny (petty theft without violence).
Thousands of people are also still having to disclose decades-old adult cautions and historical, irrelevant offences in routine criminal records checks every year. Cautions were released in more than 23,000 DBS certificates last year, more than 8,000 of which were a decade or more old.
The government data was released under freedom of information laws to FairChecks, a campaign backed by justice charities pressing for reform of the system.
It is calling for an end to cautions being automatically revealed in checks, to wipe the slate clean for childhood offences and to stop forcing people to reveal short prison sentences forever.
This story is from the June 21, 2022 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the June 21, 2022 edition of The Guardian.
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