CYP Now - Court Report: Spent convictions blight young people's employment prospects

This case involved four respondents who had all been convicted or received cautions or reprimands in respect of comparatively minor offending.

In each case, the relevant convictions and cautions were "spent" but the disclosure of their criminal records to potential employers via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) forms had made it more difficult for them to obtain jobs, or may make it more difficult in future.

One case involved a man who was arrested at aged 13 for sexually assaulting two younger boys but was not prosecuted because the sexual activity was consensual and seemed to have been in the form of "dares" and sexual experimentation on the part of all three boys. At 18 he lost his job as a library assistant in a local college because the reprimand would have been disclosed as part of his DBS check.

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