Rules regarding the length of time in which a criminal conviction must be disclosed to an employer or potential employer, have been changed.
As of last week, the period of time after which a past conviction becomes seen as ‘spent,’ which means that it does not need to be made public to an employer or prospective employer, has been reduced.
Minor cautions incurred by adults will now be filtered from their records after six years, while cautions received by youths will be removed after two years.
The change, which took effect under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, now means that, in most cases, job applicants and employees who have a ‘spent’ conviction should be treated as if they have no conviction. Any information relating to the previous conviction is also allowed to be withheld from employers.
The rule change comes about following a Court of Appeal ruling at the beginning of this year which found that blanket criminal record checks are at odds with human rights laws. Exceptions to the new rules do remain, such as for those in involved in the childcare or vulnerable adult care arena, in which case spent convictions may still need to be disclosed.
A further change will see custodial sentence rehabilitation periods now beginning from the time the sentence ends, rather than from the date of conviction. Only sentences that were had a timespan of more than 48 months can now never be rehabilitated, compared to the previous length of 30 months. The rehabilitation periods in Scotland are not subject to any changes.
Nicola Inge, work inclusion campaign manager at Business in the Community, told Personnel Today: “The Government’s changes show just how punitive the system has been until now. For example, the 800,000 people given a court fine last year would previously have had to disclose their criminal conviction to employers for five years.
“This large group will now only have to disclose their fine for one year – opening up greater opportunity to work and reducing the likelihood they will face employer discrimination.”