Criminal Record

Criminal record and Immigration Requirement

A criminal record, police record, or colloquially rap sheet is a record of a person's criminal history. The information included in a criminal record and the existence of a criminal record varies between countries and even between jurisdictions within a country. In most cases it lists all non-expunged criminal offences and may also include traffic offences such as speeding and drunk driving. In some countries the record is limited to actual convictions (where the individual has pleaded guilty or been found guilty by a qualified court, resulting in the entry of a conviction), while in others it also includes arrests, charges dismissed, charges pending and charges of which the individual has been acquitted.

A criminal history may be used by potential employers, lenders, and others to assess a person's trustworthiness. Criminal records may also be relevant for international travel, and for the charging and sentencing of persons who commit additional criminal offenses.

Who can check your criminal record

Employers can check your criminal record no matter what role you apply for. This is called a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

For certain roles an employer can request a more detailed DBS check, for example if you’ll be working with children or in healthcare.

Your employer can still request a basic check if they cannot get a more detailed check for your role.

Types of criminal record check

The types of DBS check are:

• a basic check, which shows unspent convictions and conditional cautions
• a standard check, which shows any spent and unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands and final warnings
• an enhanced check, which shows the same as a standard check plus any information held by local police that’s considered relevant to the role
• an enhanced check with barred lists, which shows the same as an enhanced check plus whether you’re on the list of people barred from doing the role