Rules on youth crime disclosure ‘must change’, say MPs

It suggests the rules should be relaxed because the current system hinders access to employment, education, housing, insurance and visas for travel.

Conservative MP Bob Neill, chairman of the Commons Justice Committee, told Sky News: “We’re saying we need something that’s more sophisticated and recognises that people do move on.

“The objective of the criminal justice system is to help them move on, but particularly if they are young, there is a good track record of their having a nice life after, there shouldn’t be this real risk at the moment, on whether they come up on what’s called a DBS, the criminal records checks, that are done for very many types of employment.”

As a child, Kathleen Jones ended up with cautions for arson and assault.

Her criminal records come up every time she seeks new employment, and as a teacher it has stopped her getting jobs.

“When I was 11, I set fire to some toilet roll in the school and then, when I was 14, I had a fight with another girl who I was friends with at school,” she said.

“On my record it’s down as something far more severe.

“It affects me every day, every time I apply for a job… I feel embarrassed and mortified that I have to drag up reckless mistakes from the past.”

Between 2014 and 2015, there were 31,753 DBS checks on people with convictions.

A quarter of those, 8,268, related to youngsters who were under 18 at the time of conviction.

Craig Saunders, a butcher in Worcester, has employed an ex-offender. The young man has a conviction for criminal damage.

“If anything took place in the last five years I think I’d want to know,” Mr Saunders told Sky News.

“Anything beyond that, I’d hope, if they’d left it five years and hadn’t committed an offence, I think they should be given a fair go just to get on with their lives.”

One proposal is that chief police officers review some cases and have the final say on what job applicants need to tell employers.