Criminal Convictions and applying to Durham

We require an Enhanced DBS check for the following professional courses: 

• PGCE Primary Education 

• PGCE Secondary Education 

• BA (Hons) Primary Education 

Whilst we don’t require this for our other courses, we will ask you to declare any unspent criminal convictions you have. 

Find out more about the UK Government's guidance on DBS checks

The convictions we consider to be ‘relevant’ are listed below, and are as defined in The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974: 

• Offences listed in the Sex Offences Act 2003 

• Offences listed in the Terrorism Act 2006 

• Offences involving firearms or arson 

• Any kind of violence including (but not limited to) threatening behaviour, offences concerning the intention to harm, or offences that resulted in actual bodily harm 

• The unlawful supply of controlled drugs or substances, where the conviction concerns commercial drug dealing or trafficking 

• Custodial sentences of more than four years. Custodial sentences of more than four years can never become spent and therefore will need to be declared. 

In general, an unspent conviction means: 

• It's on your basic criminal record 

• It will show up on any DBS check 

A spent conviction (and most conviction become ‘spent’ after a specific amount of time) means: 

• It’s not on your basic criminal record anymore 

• It will only show up on a ‘standard’ or ‘enhanced’ DBS check (unless filtered) 

If you have a conviction and are unsure if it is now ‘spent’ you can check this on the Unlock website.

Having a criminal record does not necessarily prevent you from studying with us, we are an inclusive and diverse university, however, we have a duty of care to all students and staff. But it’s not just that, knowing about relevant convictions means we can recognise any potential challenges you might face during your studies with us, and we can then employ methods to mitigate risk for everyone. 

We want to be certain you can fully participate in your course – some sentences have certain probation conditions and these may restrict you from fully engaging in your course. Us knowing in advance about this allows us to identify barriers to your learning - we can then explore individually designed support to help you with your studies.

We don't consider warnings, penalty notices for disorder (PNDs), anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) or violent offender orders (VOOs) as relevant, unless you've challenged a PND or breached the terms of an ASBO or VOO and this has then resulted in a criminal conviction. 

Spent convictions are not relevant, and you don’t need to declare them. 

The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 permits some convictions to become 'spent' after a rehabilitation period. This period varies depending on the sentence imposed by the court. 

When you accept your offer we'll contact you by email to ask if you have anything to declare with a link to our Criminal Convictions Declaration Form.  

If you do not have any unspent, relevant criminal convictions then you do not need to complete the form.  

If you do have a relevant, unspent criminal conviction to declare then you'll need to complete the form provided on the email within five working days. 

Please note, if you become a student with us you may need to confirm your status again when you enrol for your course. 

If you have a relevant unspent conviction, we'll ask you to supply the following on your form, often this will be all we need: 

• The precise offence for which you were convicted 

• The date of the conviction 

• The sentence you received and any conditions on your conviction 

Occasionally, we'll need to ask for more information, this would usually be a statement briefly describing what happened, or a reference from a probation officer. 

When we receive your form, our Admissions Compliance Team will make an initial assessment. In most cases, they will make a decision and will communicate the outcome to you, but they may need to escalate more complex cases to a Deputy Head of Admissions. 

The Deputy Head of Admissions will then either make a decision or may convene a Criminal Convictions Review Panel. This is a panel of senior University staff who represent key areas, for example, student welfare and the academic department.  

The panel assess the risks and explores potential support requirements. When we have a decision from the Criminal Convictions Review Panel, we will communicate this to you by an email marked as ‘Private and Confidential’ from criminal.records@durham.ac.uk 

Our promise to you is that the information from your Criminal Convictions Declaration Form and provided through our criminal.records@durham.ac.uk email address will be managed by a restricted group of people: The Head of Admissions, the two Deputy Heads of Admissions and the Admissions Compliance Team, all within the Student Recruitment and Admissions Team. 

The information provided on your Criminal Conviction Declaration Form will be restricted to relevant staff only, including: the Head of Admissions, the two Deputy Heads of Admissions, the Admissions Compliance Team and, if convened, members of the Criminal Conviction Review Panel.  

In line with our data retention schedule, if you are unsuccessful, decline or withdraw your application from Durham, we will delete your file one year after the date on which you were due to start your course. 

If you become a student with us, we will retain your file for six years beyond the date you end your studies with us. The information you provide will not be included as part of your formal student record. However, where support arrangements are required relevant information will be shared with staff members responsible for providing that support. 

Find out more about how we manage student records, in our Privacy Notice.

If you are living outside of the UK and you have an equivalent relevant, unspent conviction (as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974) from a non-UK court, you should declare it.  

If you require a Visa to study in the UK, we recommend you research the UK Visa and Immigration Services rules around criminal convictions as these may affect your ability to study in the UK.

Applicants

If you’re still an applicant and haven’t joined us as a student yet, please contact us as soon as possible at criminal.records@durham.ac.uk to request the link to our Criminal Convictions Declaration Form. 

Students

If you’ve started your course with us as a student, please email student.cases@durham.ac.uk