Police Caution

[Stella66]

Is it true that a police cautions are now automatically spent even if they can still show up on an enhanced disclosure? Does it mean l can still tarin to be a nurse even if l was cautioned for obtaining proprty by deception 7 years ago? I got the information through this https://www.askthe.police.uk/content/Q562.htm website.

[Buenchico]

Quote 1:
"Cautions, reprimands and final warnings are not sentences with rehabilitation periods.
However, the Government is intending to include them within the Act and give them a
rehabilitation period of nil, which means that they will become spent instantly. In the
meantime, those people with only a caution on their criminal record can answer ‘no’ if
asked whether they have a criminal record, because this is usually understood to mean convictions."

Quote 2 (relating to CRB checks):
"These disclosures show spent and unspent convictions on the PNC along with cautions, reprimands and final warnings. Enhanced disclosures will sometimes also show information from local police records."
http://www.nacro.org....cro-2007021302-65.pdf

Any cautions or convictions appearing on a CRB check have to be considered by the university hosting your course. They don't automatically bar you from training. See here:
http://tinyurl.com/359m8pl

Chris

[ABerrant]

In light of that Nacro leaflet being 3 years out of date, Quote 1 may benefit from this addendum:

The Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 amends the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 such that "simple" police cautions, reprimands and warnings, and cautions given in a jurisdiction outside England and Wales become spent at the time it is given. In the case of adult and youth conditional cautions the caution becomes spent after three months unless the offender is subsequently prosecuted and convicted for the offence in respect of which the conditional caution was given. In such cases the rehabilitation period for the conditional caution is extended so that it is the same as the rehabilitation period for the offence.

A more recent Nacro leaflet here...
http://www.nacro.org....ders-act-1974-789.pdf

[Buenchico]

Thanks for the update, ABerrant.

With reference to the original post, it's worth pointing out that applications for employment within certain occupations are exempted from the provisions of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act. Irrespective of any rulings about when convictions (or cautions) may normally become 'spent', no conviction (or caution) can EVER become spent when applying for employment (or training) within a profession that involves contact with children or vulnerable adults.