ATP Template with bundler

Police checks and clearance forms


Answer

Most Embassy web-sites give clear and concise guidance about the immigration/emigration process- what documents and checks are required and what steps to take

If you are emigrating to another country, you may be asked to obtain a "Police Clearance form" or "Certificate of Good Character".

Scottish Police are not able to provide "Certificates of Good Character" but can give a copy of your conviction history which is suitable for visa and immigration purposes, see link in related information.

This can be requested by completing a subject access form and sending it to our Data Protection Officer.

If your request is in connection with employment within the UK you should apply to Disclosure Scotland, see links in Related Information for details. 


Answer

If you paid the fine without challenging it then this would not be classed as a conviction. It is also not classed as a caution or reprimand. If you refused to pay the fine or challenged the Fixed Penalty Notice and, as a consequence of refusing to pay / challenging it, had to attend court and were found guilty, this would be classed as a conviction.


Answer

An individual is entitled to exercise their rights to obtain information that is held about themselves under Data Protection legislation. This process is known as a subject access request. This is not a Disclosure Certificate.

A subject access request is an individual's right of access to verify the information held about them on police computers. A subject access request, to the Police National Computer, for instance, will either provide a letter stating that there is currently no information that the Chief Constable is obliged to disclose, or it will provide a list of all information held on the computer, including all convictions regardless of whether they are spent or not, and fixed penalty notices for disorder.

By law, subject access checks have to be done within 1 month of the request being received. There is no charge for this service. Although the police will consider every request, they are under no obligation to provide all of the data and there are exceptions to providing data e.g. if it is likely to jeopardise an investigation. A Subject Access Form is available to download from any Police website or from any police office. You should apply to the force area where you currently live or last lived in the UK. In order to complete the form, you need to provide two forms of identification, one with your name (a passport or driving licence) and the other with your current address (a recent utility bill or bank statement) and a cheque or postal order for the appropriate sum.

Subject access is not an appropriate process when going for a job or college course, this should be done through Disclosure Scotland, see SQ624.

In fact, if an employer insists you do a subject access check and show him/her the results, before giving you a job, s/he commits an offence under Data Protection legislation.


Answer

A spent conviction is a conviction, which under the terms of Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 can be effectively ignored after a specified amount of time. The amount of time for rehabilitation depends on the sentence imposed, not on the offence. This act aims to rehabilitate offenders by not making their past mistakes affect the rest of their lives if they have been on the right side of the law for some time. This means that a person who has spent convictions does not have to disclose the conviction to prospective employers, and employers cannot refuse to employ someone on the basis of spent convictions.

You have to tell employers about all your convictions if you want to work with children or vulnerable adults or if you are applying for certain professions such as law, health care, pharmacy, senior management posts within certain sectors, and employment where matters of national security are involved.

If you have received a prison sentence of more than four years your convictions will never become spent.

The more serious the conviction the longer the period of rehabilitation.

If you were 17 or under when found guilty the rehabilitation period is usually half the time it would be if you were 18 or over. For example if the sentence imposed was a community service order then for the younger person the period is two and a half years whilst for the person 18 or over it is five years.