FAQ

A ‘spent’ conviction is a conviction, caution, warning or reprimand that has been received by an individual but that has expired after a certain period of time. While the conviction is ‘unspent’, it remains on their criminal record and the Police National Computer. The period of time that a record will remain before expiring is defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. Spent convictions will not appear on a Basic DBS Check. For Standard and Enhanced DBS Checks, spent convictions may or may not appear – according to filtering according to legislation put in place on 29th May 2013. This means that while spent convictions will not appear on a Basic DBS Check, they may also not appear on a Standard or Enhanced DBS Check – however the list of conviction types and offences that can never be filtered from a certificate is considerable.