Criminal Record, Right to Work and Mental Health Checks
Three checks, three purposes
The SIA runs three distinct checks, and questions often blur them.
Criminal record. The SIA obtains a criminal record check and applies its barring criteria. As covered under eligibility, a sentence of imprisonment of 12 months or more bars an applicant, as do certain criminal justice orders. Lesser convictions are assessed on their relevance, and the SIA may consider mitigating circumstances the applicant supplies. A key trap is assuming that a caution, warning or spent conviction is invisible: the SIA can take relevant information into account, and the applicant is expected to disclose rather than conceal.
Right to work. The applicant must be entitled to work in the UK. This is proved with documents such as a passport, biometric residence permit or other specified evidence. The trap is treating right to work as automatic once identity is proved - the two are separate tests, and a British citizen still proves identity with a passport while a non-British applicant must additionally show permission to work.
Mental health. This is not a diagnosis test and does not penalise illness. It asks whether the applicant is fit and proper to hold a licence - that is, whether there is anything that makes them unsuitable to work in a role involving public safety and physical intervention. The trap is thinking a mental health condition automatically disqualifies; it does not, and assessment is individual.
Rule of thumb
Separate the checks: record asks about barring, right to work asks about permission, mental health asks about fitness. A pass in one does not imply a pass in another.
Worked example
A non-British applicant with a clean record and valid identity documents is refused because they cannot show permission to work. Identity and criminal record checks passing does not cure a right to work failure.