Criminal history redaction is the removal of conviction details from an early recruitment file. Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 s.4(2) treats most spent convictions as disregarded after a rehabilitation period, and asking about them anyway, or letting a spent matter influence an early sift, can also engage the indirect-discrimination test in Equality Act 2010 s.19 where the practice disproportionately screens out an affected group. anonym.plus marks conviction and case cues on your device, so the early review holds no record of disregarded charges.
When this applies
A form or note may surface a spent matter the 1974 Act tells you to set aside, well before the role's actual DBS check stage has even started. You strip those entries so a disregarded record cannot bias a decision that has no exception to justify seeing it yet.
How anonym.plus handles it
- Open the file in anonym.plus on your device.
- Built-in OCR reads a scanned court or check page.
- The app marks offences, case numbers, and dates.
- Confirm each marking and keep job-related fields.
- Black out the confirmed conviction entries.
- Save the cleaned file locally.
What you need to provide
- The file (PDF, DOCX, or scan).
- An operator (Redact suits record entries).
- Optional batch for many files at once.
PII entity types detected
| Category | anonym.plus entity type | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Names | PERSON | applicant Yates → [APPLICANT] |
| Case | NATIONAL_ID | case no. 21-CR-118 → [CASE] |
| Dates | DATE_TIME | offence 2010 → [DATE] |
| Location | LOCATION | Crown Court → [LOCATION] |
| Identifiers | UK_NINO | QQ 12 34 56 C → [NINO] |
| Org | ORGANIZATION | issuing body → [AGENCY] |
Compliance achieved
- Reflects the spent-conviction rule in Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 s.4(2).
- Reduces the indirect-discrimination risk in Equality Act 2010 s.19 where criminal-record questions disproportionately screen out one group.
- Removes disregarded charges from an early-stage file.
- Offline work keeps record entries off the cloud.
Anonymise files with criminal history offline — see plans & start free →
Limitations & cautions
Rehabilitation periods differ by sentence, and exempt roles may lawfully see spent matters at a later, proper check stage. The app removes the entries; it does not decide which are spent or whether a role is exempt. Confirm with HR or counsel.
Frequently asked questions
When may I consider a conviction at this early stage?
Generally not, if it is spent under the 1974 Act, and even an unspent conviction should usually wait for the role's proper DBS stage rather than influence an early sift.
How does this connect to indirect discrimination?
Equality Act 2010 s.19 can catch a criminal-record question at sifting if it disproportionately screens out a group, separately from whatever the 1974 Act says about the conviction itself being spent.
Is the file uploaded during this early stage?
No. The app is fully offline, so record entries never leave your device before the proper check stage begins.