Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to update the Disclosure of Youth Criminal Records processes for records becoming sealed.

The Government has no plans for criminal records to be “sealed”. The Government agrees with the 2017 Justice Select Committee report, ‘Disclosure of youth criminal records’, which found that, whilst there may be some merits in this, it would create “unsustainable pressures” on the body responsible for deciding if a record should be sealed. As the report recommended, we are instead focused on reforming the existing automatic filtering system.

In November 2020, we implemented secondary legislation that changed the rules governing criminal records disclosure for those working with children, vulnerable adults or in a position of public trust, removing (for example) the requirement to disclose youth cautions. Further changes introduced by the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 significantly reduce the length of time that someone needs to disclose their criminal record for custodial sentences of under four years and community sentences.

We believe that these reforms will continue to ensure we strike the right balance between public protection and ensuring that individuals, and in particular children, who committed minor offences can move on with their lives as quickly as possible.