Prior to early 2006, the police were able to delete records entirely after a certain period, depending on the nature of the offence. This was possible under ‘weeding’ guidelines that were in operation at the time.
In 2006, the police stopped deleting records and introduced a ‘step-down’ procedure which was a filtering process enabling the police to hold on to records indefinitely on the Police National Computer (PNC). Individuals could however apply to have them ‘stepped down’ from their Standard or Enhanced CRB checks.
The CRB is no longer able to make referrals to police forces to ‘step down’ offences. The step-down procedure was stopped in October 2009, following a Court of Appeal decision which supported the retention of criminal convictions on the PNC for policing purposes. This means that those applicants who had records stepped down from their CRB certificate prior to the Court of Appeal ruling, may now see them disclosed on any subsequent certificate processed after the ruling in October 2009.
The current practice is for the police to store details of all recordable convictions which will be retained on the PNC until an individual’s 100th birthday, meaning therefore that all conviction information will be routinely disclosed on a Standard or Enhanced check.
The CRB are not the ‘data controllers’ of the PNC and therefore do not own or determine how information is processed on the PNC. However, an individual does retain the right to contact the police directly about information held about them on the PNC by submitting a Subject Access Request. Information about Subject Access Requests, and the relevant police contacts are published on the Home Office website www.homeoffice.gov.uk/crb in the ‘About the Criminal Records Bureau’ section.
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