Law Weblog

Police allowed to keep all criminal records

Tuesday 20 October 2009 at 7:08 am | In News | Post Comment Five police forces which challenged a ruling that they should delete records on criminal convictions from their database have won their appeal.

The court of appeal said convictions, however old and however minor, can be of value in the fight against crime.

The police added if the original ruling had been upheld, the result would have been a “liars’ charter” – where people would be able to deny criminal convictions on job applications if they knew the deletion deadline had passed.

The five convicted people who had contested the case were refused permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The records are also used by the courts, the Criminal Records Bureau, the Independent Safeguarding Agency, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Home Office.

The original ruling came about after five people complained to the information commissioner because their criminal records showed up when they applied for jobs.
One of the cases was a record held by Humberside Police about the theft of a 99p packet of meat in 1984. The person involved, who was under 18 at the time, was fined £15.