The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 of the UK Parliament enables some criminal convictions to be ignored after a rehabilitation period. Its purpose is that people do not have a lifelong blot on their records because of a relatively minor offence in their past. The rehabilitation period is automatically determined by the sentence, and starts from the date of the conviction. After this period, if there has been no further conviction the conviction is "spent" and, with certain exceptions, need not be disclosed by the ex-offender in any context such as when applying for a job, obtaining insurance, or in civil proceedings.
For adults, the rehabilitation period is 5 years for most non-custodial sentences, 7 years for prison sentences of up to 6 months, and 10 years for prison sentences of between 6 months and 2½ years. For a young offender (under 18) the rehabilitation period is generally half that for adults. Prison sentences of more than 2½ years can never be spent. Other sentences have variable rehabilitation periods. Compensation orders are only spent once paid in full, but being bound over to keep the peace would be spent either at the end of the order or a year (depending which is longer).
A conviction that is spent and need not be divulged under British law may not be so considered elsewhere. For example, criminal convictions must be disclosed when applying to enter the United States; spent convictions are not excluded.
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Certain professions and employments are exempt from the Act so that individuals are not allowed to withhold details of previous convictions in relation to their job when applying for positions in similar fields. These professions include :
Aside from these professions, the law also exempts organisations if the question is asked:
There are also a number of proceedings before a "judicial authority" (widely defined) that are excluded from the Act, and where spent convictions can be disclosed. These include applications for adoption or fostering, and for firearms certificates.[1]
Applicants to university courses are required to declare their criminal records on their UCAS forms. Students applying to do law, medicine, teaching, nursing and social work (or similar trades) may be barred if they have a conviction, even if it's spent.
Section 8 of the Act, if a person can prove that the details of a spent conviction were published with a primarily motive of causing damage to the subject (malice), then the publisher may be subject to libel damages regardless of whether the details were true or not. This applies where the publisher is relying on a defence of qualified privilege or justification.
According to reference book Media and the Law, although British media remain free to publish the details of spent convictions, provided they are not motivated by malice, they generally avoid mention of such convictions after rehabilitation.[2] However, media barrister Hugh Tomlinson QC is of the opinion that "in practice, the law of libel provides no sanction against the publication of spent convictions".[3]
The Act was extended to cover police cautions in 2008.[4] A caution is considered to be spent as soon as it is given.
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