Enhanced criminal record check | Youth Justice Legal Centre

A list of person’s criminal convictions and cautions (including spent convictions, youth cautions, youth conditional cautions, reprimands and warnings) and any relevant police intelligence.1

An enhanced criminal record check is completed by the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) (formerly the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB)). A person applying to work with children or vulnerable adults will usually have to undergo an enhanced criminal record check (also called an enhanced DBS check).

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1. Police intelligence can include acquittals and allegations – for more information, visit: http://hub.unlock.org.uk/knowledgebase/local-police-information-2/
2. ‘County Lines Exploitation: Practice guidance for Youth Offending Teams and frontline practitioners’, Ministry of Justice, published 15 October 2019, updated 6 January 2020, p5, https://bit.ly/2Hw2fuR
3. Article 3, Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations (UN) Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. Note that ss2 and 3 MSA 2015 contain the relevant statutory definitions.
4. ‘Criminal Exploitation of Children and Vulnerable Adults: County Lines’, Home Office, published 11 July 2017, updated 7 February 2020, https://bit.ly/3kZGHnW
5. ‘Modern slavery’ includes child trafficking which includes CCE. (See: Modern Slavery Act 2015 - Statutory Guidance for England and Wales’, Home Office, version 2, January 2021, https://bit.ly/3bfiyIx
6.a. b. ‘Modern Slavery Act 2015 - Statutory Guidance for England and Wales’, Home Office, version 2, January 2021
7.a. b. ‘Criminal Exploitation of Children and Vulnerable Adults: County Lines’, Home Office, published 11 July 2017, updated 7 February 2020
8. National Crime Agency National Briefing Report – ‘County Lines Violence, Exploitation & Drug Supply 2017’, NCA, November 2017, https://bit.ly/375mSqw
9. Defence representatives may write directly to the SCA to request this information, with a signed consent from the child. Guidance for a Subject Access Request can be found here: https://bit.ly/2HzE4vA
10. See a directory of human trafficking & modern slavery experts here: https://bit.ly/3fvIYGr
11.a. b. c. R v AAD, AAH and AAI [2022] EWCA Crim 106 which disagreed with the dictum in R v DS [2020] EWCA Crim 285 which suggested that there could be no abuse of process, even when the CPS departs from sound positive CG decision. An application for a say can be made, but only in “most exceptional case” [140(3)]
12. The SCA has a target date of five working days from receipt of referral in which to make the RG decision
13. Following the RG decision, the SCA has 45 days to gather further information. Once it has done so, it goes on to make the CG decision
14.a. b. c. R v Brecani [2021] EWCA crim 731
15.a. b. V.C.L and A.N v The United Kingdom (Applications nos.77587/12 and 74603/12)
16. Law Society Practice Note – ‘Criminal prosecutions of victims of trafficking’, Law Society, December 2019, https://bit.ly/377MXoG
17.a. b. See, for example, R v JXP [2019] EWCA Crim 1280
18. ‘Modern Slavery Act 2015 - Statutory Guidance for England and Wales’, Home Office, version 2, January 2021, p140
19. ‘Support provider’ means a body which is employed or engaged pursuant to the Victim Care Contract to provide care and coordination services for victims – see ‘ Modern Slavery Act 2015 – Statutory Guidance for England and Wales’, Home Office, April 2020
20. See ‘Modern Slavery Act 2015 - Statutory Guidance for England and Wales’, Home Office, version 2, January 2021
21. ‘Achieving best evidence (ABE)’ – the process by which a vulnerable victim or witness is interviewed in criminal proceedings – see ‘Achieving Best Evidence in Criminal Proceedings’, Ministry of Justice, 2011, at https://bit.ly/2J2toWQ
22. ‘First response and the national referral mechanism’, College of Policing, published 28 July 2015, updated 9 June 2020, https://bit.ly/35XsbJg
23. s34 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994
24. ‘Modern Slavery Act 2015 - Statutory Guidance for England and Wales’, Home Office, version 2, January 2021, p74
25.a. b. R v S (G) [2018] EWCA Crim 1824
26.a. b. c. [2020] EWCA Crim 285
27. National Crime Agency Report – ‘County Lines Gang Violence, Exploitation & Drug Supply’, 2017
28. National Crime Agency Intelligence Assessment – ‘County Lines Drug Supply, Vulnerability and Harm 2018’, NCA, January 2019, https://bit.ly/3l1f4e4
29.a. b. c. d. CPS Legal Guidance – ‘Human Trafficking, Smuggling and Slavery’, CPS, updated 30 April 2020
30. [2017] EWCA Crim 36
31. [2018] EWCA Crim 1824
32. R v S (G) [2018] EWCA Crim 1824, para76
33. As stated in Article 8, European Union (EU) Directive 2011/36/EU, implemented in England & Wales by way of the CPS duty to review the prosecution of a VoT and the availability of the s45(4) MSA 2015 defence. The Court of Appeal, in DS, held that the availability of the statutory defence enables the state to discharge this obligation
34. s44 Children And Young Persons Act 1933, which requires the courts to have regard to the welfare of a young person; s37 Crime And Disorder Act 1998, which requires the principal aim of agencies involved in the youth justice system to be the prevention of offending by young persons; and ‘The Code for Crown Prosecutors’, which states that Crown Prosecutors must consider the interests of a youth, amongst other public interest factors, when deciding whether a prosecution is needed
35. CPS Legal Guidance – ‘Youth Offenders’, CPS, updated: 28 April 2020, https://bit.ly/339raf5
36. See R v Chief Constable of Kent and Another ex p L, R v DPP ex p B [1991] 93 Cr App R 416
37. ‘Recovery Needs Assessment’, Home Office, August 2020, https://bit.ly/3m2qmAa
38. See R v L & N [2017] EWCA Crim 2129, [9]–[15], [33] & [52]
39. See R v L & Ors [2013] EWCA Crim 991. The CPS is under an equivalent duty. They will be expected to proactively chase the NRM and typically will do so via the OIC
40. Defence representatives should take a signed authority from the child enabling them to communicate directly with the SCA
41.a. b. [2018] EWCA Crim 2995
42. ‘Case sent to the Crown Court for trial – case management questionnaire’ (cm025), available from https://bit.ly/2HuiZm3
43.a. b. R v DS [2020] EWCA Crim 285
44. R v A [2020] EWCA Crim 1408
45. s45(4) MSA 2015
46. R v VSJ [2017] EWCA Crim 36
47. [17-107]–[17-110] Archbold Criminal Practice 2021
48. R v Bowen [1996] 2 CrAppR 157
49. See R v N [2019] EWCA Crim 984, para20; R v LM [2010] EWCA Crim 2327, para47; R v L [2013] EWCA Crim 991, paras 14, 63; R v S (G) [2018] EWCA Crim 1824, para 59
50. [2010] EWCA Crim 2327, para 47
51. R v S (G) [2018] EWCA Crim 1824, para 59
52. Article 26 (nonpunishment provision), Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, May 2005
53. Directive 2011/36/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 April 2011 on preventing and combating trafficking in human beings and protecting its victims, and replacing Council Framework Decision 2002/629/JHA