A recordable offence is a criminal offence for which the police are required to keep a record on their systems.
Broadly this means crimes for which an individual could be sentenced to a term of imprisonment. Most common types of offence are recordable, namely common assault, assault by beating, theft, possession of drugs, and public order offences (Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 does not carry a term of imprisonment, but is recordable nevertheless).
Non-recordable offences are non-imprisonable offences for example begging, illegal taxi touting, non-payment of a TV licence and driving without insurance. However some non-imprisonable offences are still recordable, such as buying alcohol for a minor.
The police are not able to take or retain the DNA or fingerprints of an individual who is arrested for an offence which is not recordable.
Are Non-Recordable offences Recorded Anywhere?
You would imagine the answer to this question would be no. Non-recordable offences can however sometimes still be recorded on the PNC if you are convicted of both a recordable and non-recordable offence at the same time.
Also non-recordable offences will generally be held locally by the police and may be recorded on the Police National Database (PND) – see here for more information on the PND.
