Government proposal aims to reduce number of children in custody in England and Wales and boost youth employment
Children found guilty of robbery, dealing drugs to other children or violent disorder will no longer have to disclose their criminal records to prospective employers under sweeping government proposals to change the youth justice system.
People in England and Wales will not have to share records of crimes committed when they were under 18 for the rest of their lives under the proposals, which ministers say will boost youth employment and make life fairer for people from disadvantaged backgrounds in particular.
The proposals, which are subject to consultation, are part of a wider set of changes that aim to sharply reduce the number of children in custody and increase support for those who are convicted of crimes.
Jake Richards, a justice minister, told the Guardian: “Where it’s safe, we believe as a government, people should have second chances – second chances to make something of themselves, to contribute to work and to turn their back on crime.
“The system at the moment doesn’t discern for offences committed when you were a child [and] those committed as an adult.”
Ministers have been talking about reducing the number of people who have to disclose childhood convictions for several years. David Lammy, the former justice secretary, found in a 2017 review that criminal records from childhood were one reason black and minority people faced discrimination later in life.
Richards plans to reduce the number of offences that would require lifelong disclosure on standard and enhanced DBS checks by the person who committed them.
If the proposals become law, people convicted of violent disorder, supplying drugs to a child, robbery, affray and actual bodily harm when under 18 would no longer automatically have to disclose those offences for the rest of their lives.
If they are convicted of one of those offences but do not get a custodial sentence, they will have to disclose the offence for five and a half years. If they receive a sentence of two years or less, they would have to disclose it for 11 years.
Anyone given a longer custodial sentence would still have a lifetime obligation to tell prospective employers.
If someone is convicted of a crime that results in a fine, they will no longer have to disclose it, as opposed to for the next six months as the law currently stipulates.
Positions in the UK that require a standard or enhanced DBS check include teaching and early years working, social work, healthcare and transport jobs such as taxi driving.
Other changes include ending the automatic disclosure of any out-of-court resolution and ending a rule that lengthens how long it takes for a conviction to become spent if the person is convicted of a second crime during their rehabilitation period.
Campaigners welcomed the proposed changes, saying they will boost youth employment. Companies said criminal convictions are the second biggest barrier to employing people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Paula Harriott, the chief executive of the charity Unlock, said: “It is not proportionate or fair that each year tens of thousands of people have to disclose childhood offences that are irrelevant to who they are today.
“Given the long shadow a criminal record casts, and the barriers to employment, education and volunteering it creates, it is right that the government is consulting on these reforms.”
Former offenders have also given backing to the plans. Speaking to reporters after a launch event in London, Joanne [not her real name], a 22-year-old who spent 18 months in a young offender institution as a child, said the reforms would have changed her life had they been in place earlier.
“If my criminal record from five and a half years ago was gone now, I would be able to achieve my dreams, literally, and achieve everything I want to do, which is own my own residential care facility with staff that employs people with lived experience,” she said.
Joanne said she had been convicted of several counts of affray and assault – the first when she was 10 years old – after being exploited by a gang who pushed her to sell drugs. “If I was on the street and I had some drugs and somebody came over to me trying to take it off me, I would have to then use violence so they don’t take that from me,” she said.
“Because if that was to happen, and it was taken off me, the punishment would then come to me, and I would be hurt.”
