Criminal convictions

Criminal convictions are notified to us wither:

• directly by the police or courts where they relate to currently registered teachers; or
• by Disclosure Scotland as part of the Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) Scheme when someone applies for registration; or
• by Disclosure Scotland when information is added to a PVG Scheme Record as part of ongoing monitoring.

Teachers also sometimes tell us about a criminal conviction themselves.

This means we are notified of a wide range of criminal convictions, ranging from one-off road traffic offences to very serious offences related to child protection matters.

Whilst we recognise that any criminal conviction is a serious matter, it would be disproportionate and unnecessary for us to treat all notified criminal convictions as fitness to teach referrals.

We therefore automatically screen certain criminal convictions out of our fitness to teach process in line with the guidance set out below.

Assessment Stage 1

Does the criminal conviction fall into any of the categories listed below? If not, it can potentially be screened out and we move onto Assessment Stage 2.

• It is a conviction for an offence which resulted in the imposition of a custodial sentence.
• It is a conviction for an offence which resulted in the imposition of a direct alternative to custody namely a Community Payback Order (please note that these orders were previously known as: Community Service Orders (CSO), Probation Orders or Restriction of Liberty Orders (ROLO)).
• The conviction, regardless of sentence, relates to:
  • Dishonesty
  • Misuse of drugs
  • Violence against a person
  • Firearms, knives, offensive weapon or the offence was aggravated by the use of a weapon
• The offence is sexual in nature.
• The offence is aggravated by being related to hate crime (prejudice based on sexuality, race, religion or disability).
• Details are given that a child and/or vulnerable adult was a victim or was harmed by the offence.
• Details are given which indicates that the offence took place in the course of carrying out teaching duties or is closely linked to this.    

Assessment Stage 2

Does the criminal conviction fall into one of the categories listed below?

• Conviction is over 5 years old and was disposed of by way:
  • A fine of less than £500
  • Admonition
  • Absolute Discharge
  • Conditional Discharge
  • Caution
• Up to 3 convictions for road traffic offences of which none are punishable by way of a custodial sentence.*

If the conviction falls into one of these categories, we automatically screen it out.

*The road traffic offences that are punishable by way of a custodial sentence are set out in the table below.