Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether time spent in court cells as a disposal to a conviction in lieu of a fine is categorised as a custodial sentence for the purposes of determining that the conviction cannot be filtered from a standard or enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service certificate.

The Police Act 1997 sets out the circumstances for the disclosure of certain convictions and cautions on a standard or enhanced criminal record certificate issued by the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). In particular, the Act provides for the disclosure of any conviction receiving a custodial sentence. The DBS relies on information recorded on the Police National Computer (PNC) that determines whether a conviction should be disclosed under the Act.

Time spent in court cells as a disposal to a conviction in lieu of a fine is not categorised as a custodial sentence. The sentence is treated as a fine and any time spent in custody is a committal in default of payment of the fine.