ACPO/"Scottish convictions"/OA Visa

[Craig krup]

I've just noticed that the London embassy only accepts ACPO criminal record checks, but ACPO says "Certificates are prepared in accordance with ACPO guidelines. These guidelines do not apply to Scottish convictions."

 

I'm guessing that this means that the time for a conviction to be dead differs between Scotland and the rest of the UK. It doesn't - you'd hope - mean that it doesn't capture Scottish convictions. 

 

I don't have any convictions, but you'd think (given that the OA is only for 50 plus) there must be some right pieces of work who've done things before informational retrieval systems became widespread, and who slip through the net. 

 

That said, applying for an O in the kingdom raises the same problems. 

[OJAS]

8 hours ago, Craig krup said:

I'm guessing that this means that the time for a conviction to be dead differs between Scotland and the rest of the UK. It doesn't - you'd hope - mean that it doesn't capture Scottish convictions. 

All that it means, as far as I can tell, is that those who have lived north of Hadrian's Wall for any length of time would need to submit subject access disclosure requests via https://www.mygov.scot/basic-disclosure/ rather than https://www.acro.police.uk/subject_access.aspx

[Craig krup]

14 hours ago, OJAS said:

All that it means, as far as I can tell, is that those who have lived north of Hadrian's Wall for any length of time would need to submit subject access disclosure requests via https://www.mygov.scot/basic-disclosure/ rather than https://www.acro.police.uk/subject_access.aspx

 

I don't think that can be right. As they say, "Applicants residing in the United Kingdom will need to have a police clearance issued only from here.", and when you click on "here" it takes you to the ACPO site. So I think the Thais have created a problem, or ACPO has created a problem. The United Kingdom includes Scotland, and the Thais definitely say that the only police report they'll accept is one prepared to guidelines which "do not apply to Scottish convictions". 

 

As I say, if that means that Scottish convictions are still shown, but (for example) there's a longer time before they're spent, then it doesn't matter. If a conviction for affray in Scotland doesn't disappear for (say) ten years, and it's eight in England, then it's just a level playing field. A Scottish conviction is spent a bit earlier than the equivalent English conviction, and the Thais are happy with the English cut-off times. But if what ACPO is really saying is that they don't show some relevant Scottish stuff at all then that's a problem. There's probably no way around it. They can't ask everyone for two reports on the off-chance that they might have been resident in Scotland and been convicted for something serious. I suppose it's also true for every EU national who has established residence in the UK. If they get an ACPO report there's no saying what the paper-based system in Romania from the 1980s might show.