Working for us if you’ve got a criminal record

Having a criminal record does not automatically prevent you from gaining employment with the Council and we undertake not to treat any applicant unfairly on the basis of previous convictions.

Under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, you only have to declare unspent convictions. However, if the post for which you are applying is one which is an exception under this Act, you must give full details of everything on your criminal record.

When is a conviction 'spent'?

A conviction or caution becomes ‘spent’, after a specified period of time, known as rehabilitation period. The length of the rehabilitation period depends on the type of conviction.

If you declare a criminal conviction, the details will be hidden until after shortlisting has taken place. If you are shortlisted, the information you declared will be discussed with you during your interview. However, you should note that only convictions that are relevant to the job in question will be considered.

Safer recruitment

To ensure safer recruitment, certain posts which involve working with children, young people, vulnerable adults or other positions of trust, a DBS check will be required, and this will be specified in the job advert, job description and person specification.

We won’t share any information contained in disclosures with any other person or bodies, other than those we are allowed to share with under the DBS code of practice.

The DBS offers a confidential checking process for transgender applicants. For more information contact the sensitive applications team, on telephone 0300 106 1452 or email sensitive@dbs.gov.uk.

See the government's Disclosure and Barring Service web page for more information, including the requirements for non-UK nationals or UK nationals who have lived abroad for more than 12 months.