Do other governments have access to UK criminal records?

[ukman]

Soon I will be applying for residency in Colombia. Will the government here be able to access UK criminal records, even though my convictions are from when I was incarcerated/living in Australia?

[Buenchico]

EU law prohibits the UK from making criminal records data generally available to overseas governments. (Of course, they can pass on information about specific individuals, e.g. drug smugglers, but they can't provide general access).

However, many countries won't provide overseas nationals with a residency permit without a 'certificate of good conduct'. It's the applicant that must make the request to the authorities in the country where he's previously resided, not the authorities in the country where he's seeking to move to.

Chris