Growing Up, Moving On: A report on the childhood criminal records system in England and Wales

The childhood criminal records system in England and Wales anchors children to their past and prevents them moving on from their mistakes. There’s evidence to show that the system acts as a barrier to employment, education and housing. These are important factors in preventing reoffending, so by blocking access to them, the criminal records system works against rehabilitation and thus the aims of the youth justice system. Worryingly, the system also perpetuates inequalities in the justice system, for instance among children in care and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic children.

We want to see the system reformed so that the impact of childhood criminal records is much reduced, but the public remain protected. The details of our recommendations for reform are set out in our campaign report, Growing Up, Moving On (see below), but in short we want to see:

• Rehabilitation periods significantly reduced;

• A presumption against disclosing police intelligence on children;

• The filtering system expanded (including getting rid of the “two offences rule” and the list of “exempt offences”) and the time frames applied reduced;

• Provision for wiping (or deleting) childhood offences from police computers if conditions are met, introduced in the future.

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Full Report: Growing up, Moving on: A report on the childhood criminal records system in England and Wales *

*Please note, this report was published under our previous name of the Standing Committee for Youth Justice (SCYJ)