GovWire

When you apply for an SIA licence, we will check your UK criminal record.

We may also ask you to provide evidence of criminal record checks from other countries. We will do this if:

• you live outside the UK
• you have spent 6 continuous months or more outside of the UK in the last 5 years

We check your criminal record so that we can decide if you are suitable to hold a licence.

Use our criminal record indicator to check if you can get a licence

You can use our criminal record indicator to see whether you will pass our criminality checks. You need to pass these checks to get an SIA licence.

The indicator follows the same process our licensing team follows when making their decision.

The result you get from the indicator will be based on the information you enter. It does not guarantee the result of the criminality check that we will conduct when you apply for a licence.

Use the criminal record indicator.

How we check your UK criminal record

We check your UK criminal record by sending a disclosure request to 1 of the following organisations:

• Access Northern Ireland (AccessNI)
• Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
• Disclosure Scotland

These are the 3 official organisations that can disclose (show) criminal history information from UK records.

The organisation we use will depend on where you have lived in the last 5 years. We ask for your address history when you apply for a licence.

We use AccessNI if you:

• currently live in Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland
• have lived in Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland in the last 5 years

We use the DBS if you currently live:

• in England or Wales (unless you have lived in Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland in the last 5 years, in which case we use AccessNI)
• outside of the UK

We use Disclosure Scotland if you currently live in Scotland (unless you have lived in Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland in the last 5 years, in which case we use AccessNI).

Each organisation has a different process that we must follow. If we use:

• AccessNI, we ask you to apply online for a standard check through AccessNI
• the DBS, we arrange the check for you
• Disclosure Scotland, we ask you to complete a disclosure request form and then send it to us so that we can sign it and send it on to Disclosure Scotland

What we look at when we check your criminal record

We check your criminal record so we can decide if you are suitable to hold a licence.

You may still be able to get an SIA licence even if you have criminal offences on your record.

We look for things that show you might be a risk to the public, or that you are not suitable to work in the private security industry for another reason, such as dishonest behaviour.

For example: if your record shows offences such as assault or grievous bodily harm, this may demonstrate a pattern of violent behaviour. This would make you unsuitable to work in the private security industry, which can sometimes involve dealing with hostile members of the public.

We take into account:

• whether your offences are relevant to the work of a security operative
• how recent your offences were
• any sentences you were given for your offences (these are punishments given to you in court)
• any disposals you were given for your offences (these are penalties given to you outside of court, such as a caution or a fine from a police officer)

So, if you have a single offence on your record from a long time ago and you were given a fine, we might still grant you a licence. If you were given a prison sentence then we might not grant you a licence. And if your record shows more recent offences, or multiple offences over a number of years, then it is unlikely that we would give you a licence.

The offences we think are relevant

Certain offences are relevant to whether we think that you are suitable to hold a licence. These are usually in the following categories:

• abuse or neglect of children
• criminal damage
• dishonesty (theft and fraud)
• drug offences
• espionage
• firearms offences
• offensive weapons
• private security offences
• proceeds of crime offences
• sexual offences
• social security offences
• terrorism
• violent and abusive behaviour

We give special consideration to certain offences

We give special consideration to sexual offences and offences against children this is regardless of how long ago those offences were. We may ask you to provide further information if your criminal record includes any of these.

We will refuse your application if either of the following points apply:

• you are on the sex offenders register
• we think you may still pose a threat to the public

We can look at spent convictions

In most cases, we can look at all the criminal offences on your record. This includes any spent convictions. These are convictions you do not usually have to tell people about after a certain period of time. We are legally allowed to look at spent convictions because we have a duty to consider the safety of the public.

If you have charges that have not yet gone to court

When you apply for a licence, you must tell us if there are any outstanding charges against you.

This is when the police have accused you of an offence, but a court has not decided yet whether you are guilty of the offence.

If you have outstanding charges against you, we will ask you for evidence we can use to decide if the offences are relevant to your licence application. The evidence could be a solicitors letter or a court document. It needs to show:

• all of the offences you were charged with
• when your case is due in court

If any of the offences are relevant, we may wait until the court has decided if you are guilty of the offences. Then we will decide about your application.

If the charges against you are still outstanding 1 year after you applied for a licence, we will withdraw your application. We recommend that you wait until the court has made a decision about your case before starting a new application.

If you are under investigation

When you apply for a licence, you must tell us if any public body is investigating you for any relevant offence.

If you are under investigation, we will ask you for evidence we can use to determine when the matter will be resolved. The evidence could be a letter from a solicitor or the investigating body, setting out the stages or expected duration of the investigation.

We may wait until the investigation is concluded before before making a decision on your application.

If the investigation has not concluded 1 year after you applied for a licence, we will withdraw your application.

If you have a conviction that relates to the conflict in Northern Ireland

When you apply for an SIA licence, we take into account all relevant criminal offences to decide if you are suitable to hold a licence.

If you have any convictions for offences that relate to the conflict in Northern Ireland between 1969 and April 1998, we will take this into account in line with guidance from the Executive Office of the Northern Ireland Executive. This says that any conviction for a conflict-related offence that pre-dates the Good Friday Agreement (April 1998) should not be taken into account unless it is materially relevant to the employment being sought.

Our criminal record checks will not tell us if any of your past convictions relate to the conflict in Northern Ireland, so we may initially propose to refuse your licence application based on our criminality criteria.

We will write to you if we propose to refuse your application. You can then tell us your convictions relate to the conflict in Northern Ireland. You must do so within 21 days of receiving our letter. If you do not, we will refuse your licence application.

We will need to confirm what you say with the Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunal Service (NICTS). We will ask you for your signed consent to request this information from the NICTS.

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