Response to Report on Disclosure of Youth Criminal Records

We welcome the findings and recommendation from the Justice Select Committee into the disclosure of youth criminal records inquiry published today. Too often criminal records acquired in youth can shackle people to their past and stop them from securing future employment, education, housing, insurance and visas for travel.
We support the Committee’s call for reforming the criminal records system including an urgent review of the filtering regime, and reducing the time that people have to disclose their unspent convictions. More than 11 million people in the UK have a criminal record, and through Nacro’s work, we know that many face significant barriers into employment. This can have a devastating impact on young people who are trying to secure jobs and move on in their lives. It is now time for the fundamental review of the system that Nacro has been calling for.

The findings and recommendations of this review must now lead to concrete actions to ensure that we have a criminal records system which is based on a clearly defined and legitimate purpose, is transparent and is only disclosed when the conviction is relevant to the job role being applied for.