Criminal record in Spain: certificates, sex offences and cancellation

Criminal record, police record and sex offence certificates are 3 different documents, from 3 different registers and 2 different ministries. Mixing them up is the most common mistake when applying for them.

Criminal records reflect final convictions handed down by a judge or court and are held in the Registro Central de Penados, run by the Ministerio de Justicia (the Spanish Ministry of Justice).

The sex offence certificate comes from the Registro Central de Delincuentes Sexuales y de Trata de Seres Humanos (the central register of sex offenders and human trafficking, also part of the Ministerio de Justicia) and reports only convictions for that type of offence. It is the one the law requires in order to work or volunteer with minors.

Police records are not convictions: they are data the police keep in their file on persons of police interest (for example, arrests or investigations). They are managed by the Dirección General de la Policía (the Spanish national police directorate), which reports to the Ministerio del Interior (the Ministry of the Interior). Having a police record does not mean having a criminal record.

This certificate states whether or not you have a criminal record on the date it is issued. You may be asked for it for employment, oposiciones (public sector competitive exams), certain licences and permits, immigration and nationality procedures, adoptions and other procedures.

It can be applied for by the holder or by a duly authorised representative, and by both individuals and legal entities. The online route uses Cl@ve (Spain's official online identity system) or a digital certificate, and it can also be applied for in person or by post. The procedure carries a tasa (official fee), paid with the modelo 790 through the payment gateway of the AEAT (Hacienda, the Spanish tax authority). You can see the current amount on the page for that trámite (administrative procedure).

Applied for online with Cl@ve or a digital certificate, it is usually obtained almost immediately. In some cases it can take a few hours or a working day to become available. This is not a guaranteed legal deadline but an operational figure that can vary.

Important notice: this certificate does not authorise you to work with minors. For that you need the sex offence certificate, which comes from a different register.

It certifies that you have not been convicted (or that you have been convicted) of sex offences. Its legal basis is Ley Orgánica 8/2021 (the Spanish act on the comprehensive protection of children and adolescents against violence) and Real Decreto 1110/2015, which governs the Registro Central de Delincuentes Sexuales y de Trata de Seres Humanos.

It must be provided by all professionals and volunteers whose work involves habitual contact with minors (teaching, youth activity leaders, grassroots sport, child healthcare and similar), where minors are the main recipients of the service.

It is applied for online with Cl@ve or a digital certificate, or in person, and it is free of charge. As a general rule it is issued on the spot.

If you are not a Spanish national, in addition to the Spanish certificate you must provide an equivalent certificate from your country of origin covering this type of offence. In practice it is the person concerned who provides the certificate, with their consent, to the organisation hiring them.

It certifies the data held (or not held) in your name in the police records file. It is not the same as a conviction: it contains information of police interest, not court decisions.

It is requested for some jobs and authorisations (for example, private security), for certain immigration procedures and to exercise your right of access, that is, to find out what data the police hold about you.

It can be filed at any Comisaría de la Policía Nacional (national police station) or electronically with a digital certificate. Exercising the right of access is free of charge.

If that data should no longer appear, you can also ask the controller of the file to erase it (cancellation), a right recognised by the data protection rules that apply in the criminal law field.

Anyone whose criminal liability has been extinguished has the right to have the Ministerio de Justicia cancel their record in the Registro Central de Penados, either on its own initiative or on application. There are 3 legal requirements: having extinguished the criminal liability (for example, after serving the sentence), not having reoffended, and the period set out in article 136 of the Código Penal having elapsed. In practice it is advisable to have the civil liability arising from the offence settled, but since the 2015 reform that requirement no longer appears in the article 136 currently in force as a condition for cancellation.

The time limits in article 136 of the Código Penal run from the day after the sentence is extinguished: 6 months for minor penalties; 2 years for penalties not exceeding 12 months and those imposed for negligent offences; 3 years for other less serious penalties below 3 years; 5 years for other less serious penalties of 3 years or more; and 10 years for serious penalties.

Although the law provides for cancellation on the authority's own initiative, in practice it does not always happen automatically, and a record that has not been cancelled can keep appearing on your criminal record certificate. That is why it is worth applying for it expressly. As the procedure has no deadline of its own, the general fallback deadline of 3 months in Ley 39/2015 (the Spanish act on common administrative procedure) applies to the decision.

Cancellation of sex offence records entered in the Registro Central de Delincuentes Sexuales depends on who the victim is. Where the victim is an adult (or the convicted person was a minor), cancellation follows the rules in article 136 of the Código Penal and coincides with the cancellation of the record in the Registro Central de Penados. But where the victim is a minor and the convicted person an adult, Real Decreto 1110/2015 (as currently worded) sets a special regime: cancellation requires 30 years to have passed without committing a new offence against sexual freedom or of trafficking, and it is detached from the cancellation of the criminal record (cancelling the criminal record does not, by itself, cancel this entry).

Managora prepares and files these procedures for you, so you do not have to deal with Cl@ve, tasas or public counters. You complete a short form, pay, sign the mandate, and we file the application with the competent body and send you the document by email.

You can instruct us for the sex offence certificate, the police record certificate and the cancellation of a criminal record. Each trámite has its own page, showing the current amount and the exact documents you need to provide.

If you also need the criminal record certificate, Managora obtains it for you as well and sends it over ready to use, so you receive everything through the same channel and without travelling anywhere.