Government to reduce rehabilitation periods

The Government has announced that it intends to reduce rehabilitation periods for ex-offenders. 

Under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, criminal convictions become "spent" after a defined period of time (the "rehabilitation period"). The length of the rehabilitation period depends on the type and length of sentence. Subject to certain exclusions, job applicants can conceal spent convictions from prospective employers and an employer cannot refuse to employ a job applicant because he or she has a spent conviction or has concealed a spent conviction. 

The Government intends to reduce the rehabilitation periods in the Act and has tabled an amendment to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill. The Bill is progressing through Parliament and includes a range of measures to reduce reoffending, improve the sentencing framework and reform the legal aid system. Rehabilitation periods will run from when the individual completes his or her sentence, rather than the date of conviction as at present. For example, a sentence of between six and 30 months, which, for an adult, currently has a rehabilitation period of 10 years from the date of conviction, will have a rehabilitation period of four years from the end of the sentence under the new provisions. An absolute discharge, which has a rehabilitation period of six months under the current provisions, will, in future, have no rehabilitation period. However, convictions resulting in a custodial sentence of more than four years will remain unspent under the amendment. 

Job applicants will continue to have to declare previous spent and unspent convictions for certain roles, for example those involving work with vulnerable people. 

Also

The Job applicants with convictions section of the HR & Compliance Centre employment law manual explains the law relating to employing ex-offenders. 

Policy on the recruitment of ex-offenders Use this model policy to state your organisation's approach towards employing people who have criminal convictions.