Counter terrorist check

[Pebstk]

Hi there,
I am a serving civil servant. I have recently applied for a senior post which requires a Counter Terrorism Check. Since I was employed as a civil servant, I have been suspended from driving for points totting on 4 occasions in ten years (3 times for 1 month and once for 1 day). As only suspended for one month points did not revert to zero. Court was sympathetic as I have caring responsibilities. These convictions are spent (five years ago) but will they make me fail a CTC. My son also had problems with drug addiction as a teenager and we did have the police to our home on quite a few occasions because of this (us calling to report his violent behaviour) Would this impact?

Grateful for advice.

I'm not a lawyer, so I'm just bumping your question.

I have gone through a CTC - from memory, they're interested in affiliation to certain political groups, existence on security service watchlists, plus anything that could make you prone to bribery or blackmail. Including financial issues or other at home concerns.

They also asses spent and unspent criminal record. Presumably for the reasons above (ie could this person be vulnerable to bribery and blackmail?).

Either way, consider your question bumped and hopefully someone with far better knowledgeable will pop by.

When you complete the forms there will be questions about spent and unspent convictions - in most cases as long as you are honest and declare the spent ones (ie what you tell them matches what comes back on the check) there shouldn't be an issue with driving convictions.

The police visiting your house to deal with your son will not show on YOUR criminal record.

That being said, it depends what level of security clearance they are doing the checks for.

If it is one of the enhanced levels (example DV) those checks go into much more detail and will look at records relating to people connected to you, in which case your sons past would come out.

Again though, whether it will impact you will depend on how honest you are (DV clearance involves an interview) and what the role you have applied for is.

It's not as black and white as pass or fail.

I have a CTC, the questions were about my parents / partner, not about my children. I think if you were applying to be a magistrate the driving bans would not be in your favour. Good luck.

Obviously there are no guarantees but as has been said CTC is more for political affiliations etc.

I believe that most people who fail security checks do so because they lie on the form. Answer the questions truthfully, especially around your criminal convictions.

Thank you so much for the answers - it is not security check or developed vetting which are described as the next levels up but just counter terrorism check.

It is actually highly questionable it is required because it is just a more senior role on same department I work in (think education, culture etc) and no more access to Minister or documents etc than currently.

Security Check says it also involves a credit check but this one doesn’t seem to.

I have SC. In fact I have just had to renew it because it is about to expire. First time round I was really worried about this. I was in the middle of a divorce, three small kids and absolutely broke. Appalling credit and CCJs coming out of my ears due to credit run up in my name (steady income) by my ex-DH. I was sure I would fail.
I spoke to the vetting people about it honestly... and it turns out that HONESTY is really the sum total of the vetting. Along with some checks with regard to political affiliation.
They really won't care about your driving points. What they WILL be interested in is you lying about your driving points.

If you think about it logically it's all about how resilient are you to blackmail? If a for example the ubiquitous 'Russian spy' asked you for some secret or classified information from your place of employment, what could they 'hold against you' that you hadn't already fessed up ?

So as far as I understand it character comes into it as well.. so fraud convictions and murder would probably not cut the mustard - but in some jobs requiring clearance -burglary and the ability to sneak about will be a positive plus !

I also had no questions about children /adult children. Didn't even ask about my Ukrainian who lives with me which I thought a bit weird as surely those most likely to be that Russian spy are most likely to be Russian speakers .. 🙄. (I don't think she is though - far too nice , but then again that might be her cover 🤣)

Thank-you so much this is very reassuring - I had intended to be completely honest as it never occurred to me not to mention things as I figured it would be found out. One look at my driving license will tell all. My only vice is driving too fast as always in a rush and nearly everyone I work with knows this.

It sounds like it's just the equivalent or similar to baseline standard which is just the counter terrorism check pretty much so you will be absolutely fine!

The firm may or may not ask about "spent" convictions (I've seen organisations use either) so if it does only specify unspent ones then there is no need to even put them on it.

If it doesn't specify which though then I would recommend putting them on, but with an annotation to show they are now spent.

It's about determining your honesty and integrity

Alternatively, change your surname to "Raab" or "Johnson".