Childhood shoplifting and fare evasion convictions blight people’s careers decades on, it has emerged.
Figures obtained under freedom of information legislation show that some 160,000 people have had their childhood offences reported to their prospective employers under criminal record checks.
They include people in their 50s, 60s and 70s where childhood offences such as “taking a cycle without authority” and “boarding a train without a ticket” remain on their records for checks by potential employers.
The checks are provided by the Government’s disclosure and barring service (DBS) for people applying for jobs where they may be working with children or vulnerable people, or where they have access to sensitive information including education, social care, financial services, the legal profession and even taxi driving.
Campaigners are calling for the slate to be wiped clean for all but the most serious childhood offences as the criminal record checks have expanded to include volunteering jobs such as helping at a child’s school or acting as a Covid vaccination assistant.
The DBS data show that checks in the past decade have revealed 163,345 childhood offences to employers where they were the only conviction or caution on their records. They had not been reported for any other crime since they were under 18.
A sixth of the offences were 40 years old and 40 per cent had been committed more than 30 years ago.
More than a quarter of all offences reported by the DBS to employers were minor “summary” offences including travelling without a fare, minor assaults, criminal damage, shoplifting and motoring offences.
‘It is unfair and discriminatory’
Among those where childhood offences were included in their DBS checks were a 55-year-old woman convicted of “taking a pedal cycle without authority”, a 20-year-old woman who boarded a train without a valid ticket, a 66-year-old accused as a child of dishonestly using electricity and a 57-year-old convicted of shoplifting more than 40 years ago.
Research by charity Working Chance found that 30 per cent of hiring managers would automatically reject any applicant who had a criminal conviction irrespective of how minor the offence.
Penelope Gibbs, director of Transform Justice, a charity which obtained the data, said: “We need a criminal records system but our current one is unfair and discriminatory.
“People who did minor crimes when young are forced to disclose them decades later when the records have no continuing relevance.
“People from ethnic minorities, and/or who were brought up in care or in poverty, are particularly likely to have criminal records for old offences. So unfair criminal records are a significant barrier to social mobility.”
Transform Justice has launched a “FairChecks” campaign with the charity Unlock for reform including no automatic disclosure of cautions on criminal records as well as wiping the slate for childhood offences.
The law was changed in 2020 to wipe childhood cautions from records but the research shows convictions are still being considered.
Home Office sources said Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, would “make decisions on future policies in due course”.
Since 2021, childhood offences have been reported to employers in 5,459 checks on people aged over 50, of which 442 – or 8.1 per cent – were minor summary offences. For over-60s, it was 2,692 checks of which 9.1 per cent were summary offences. For those over 70, it was 515 of which 9.1 per cent were summary.
‘It will never go away’
Rhys, who was convicted of assaulting his teacher as a 14-year-old, said: “Every role I’ve applied for always starts with embarrassment. I have a great interview and go through all of my experience and then have to disclose at the end that I have a conviction for assault from when I was in school as a 14-year old child.
“The sad thing is, this will show forever on my enhanced DBS certificate – it will never go away.
“I will still be disclosing that I whacked my teacher on the arm when I was 14 when I’m 60 years old.”
Mia, who was convicted of assault after a fight outside her school aged 16, has been unable to achieve her ambition to teach.
“Fifteen years later, it still appears on enhanced checks. Mia has recently lost out on charity roles working to support young people because of her childhood criminal record,” said FairChecks.
A Home Office spokesman said: “We are committed to protecting public safety and DBS checks help to provide employers with the information they need to make safer recruitment decisions, while enabling ex-offenders to rebuild their lives.”
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