Criminal convictions 




The way the law treats criminal convictions when applying for a job, including what is and is not disclosed to the employer about past convictions, is complicated, so it is sensible to look for some specialist support. Here are two organisations specialising in helping ex-offenders to get back to work. Both provide clear, up-to-date web-based guidance for people with convictions:


• The Information Hub (www.unlock.org.uk), an independent charity for people with convictions. Its services include web materials and a helpline providing confidential peer advice and support; and



• NACRO (www.nacro.org.uk), a social justice charity that aims to help vulnerable people to change their lives.



What follows is a summary of the current position. 


The rules distinguish between convictions that can become “spent” after a fixed number of years depending on the offence, and convictions that can never be spent. The statutory regime setting out these rules is found in the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (ROA 74).



Individuals whose convictions are “spent” need not declare them when applying for a job, even if asked about them, except in certain specified areas of work listed in the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975. These include nursing, teaching and working with young, old and vulnerable people. The Hub Unlock web portal has a table listing the main types of criminal records checks, and the types of job for which spent convictions must be disclosed.



It is automatically unfair to dismiss someone because of a spent conviction, or for failing to disclose that conviction, for roles covered by the ROA 74. Two years’ service is needed to bring an unfair dismissal claim on this basis (see Chapter 10). If the system is working as it should, this kind of claim should be unusual, as an employer should not find out about a spent conviction if the job does not need a standard or enhanced criminal records check (see below), unless the applicant (or someone else) reveals it. 




The statutory rehabilitation periods for offences that can be “spent” changed in 2014. Rehabilitation periods for community orders and custodial sentences are now made up of the sentence plus an extra specified period, called a “buffer period”. In most cases, buffer periods are halved for someone who was under 18 when convicted. These changes shortened the length of time before a conviction becomes spent. For example, a 12-month prison sentence is now “spent” four years after the end of the sentence, instead of 10 years after conviction, as was the case under the old system. Hub Unlock has built a “disclosure calculator” to help people work this out for different offences. A custodial sentence of over four years is never spent. 




If a conviction is not spent but an employer has not asked for details of convictions, there is no legal duty to volunteer information about it when applying for a job. However, employers are increasingly likely to ask job applicants to request a “basic check”, which will disclose their unspent convictions, for many kind of roles (see below). 


If an employer asks about unspent convictions, they must be disclosed. A person can be dismissed fairly for lying about unspent convictions.