You expect to be police checked when applying for jobs in schools. Certainly, the law has a long arm and a long memory in terms of education.

The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 was originally designed to give offenders a second chance and job prospects. So some offences become spent and no longer appear on criminal records. But those working with children are not covered by the Act.

“When I was a student, I’d been done for fly-posting,” says James Hardy, a secondary geography teacher. “When I got to my final job interview, the head said I hadn’t disclosed my criminal record. I hadn’t a clue what he was talking about. He gave me the job, but it was a nasty moment.”

To have a record, you needn’t have been to court. You can plead guilty to some motoring offences by letter. Police cautions are usually done on the spot. But both are on your record and need to be declared. It’s a legal anomaly that cautions, police reprimands and warnings regarding minor misdemeanours are not covered by the Rehabilitation Act and so officially are never spent. This is one of the main reasons why its amendment is being considered.

The police report all convictions of those working with children to the Department for Education and Skills, with the exception of minor traffic offences. Local authorities, schools and job agencies have a duty to make sure applicants know they must declare their records. But they don’t leave it there. Authorities and schools organise police checks through the DFES. Agencies should do so through the local education authority. There are no formal arrangements for checking police records in countries outside the UK.

A DFES check will include List 99, held by local education authorities, FE corporations and associations representing independent schools. This is a list of teachers whose employment is barred or restricted on either misconduct or medical grounds. It is produced every April and updated in September and January. Applicants with serious criminal records may not be on List 99 if they weren’t teachers at the time of the offence.

Teachers may soon be asked to produce a criminal certificate when applying for jobs. From next March, the Criminal Records Bureau will be operational and will implement part of the Police Act 1997. It will issue three sorts of certificate: a criminal conviction, which will not show spent convictions, for the named holder to show to prospective employers; a criminal record certificate for those exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act; and an enhanced criminal record certificate for exempt groups, including teachers.

Like the criminal record certificate, the enhanced certificate will show spent and unspent convictions and all cautions but will also include “relevant non-conviction information” from police records. This document is likely to give details of involvement in any police investigations - even those that did not lead to any prosecution or police action. Certain employers will have access to the criminal record certificate and enhanced certificates directly through the bureau.