Rehabilitation of Offenders Act at 50: Time for an update

Fifty years ago today (31 July 2024), the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (ROA) received Royal Assent, introducing a right for people’s criminal history to be forgotten.

It has helped millions of people with criminal records move on positively with their lives without having to disclose their past.  

Fifty years on the world has changed, but the 1974 Act is still the basis of the criminal records system.

For all its positive impact we have to ask, is the legislation still fit for purpose? 

Balancing rights and access to information

One of the main aims of the ROA is for people to be able act in most circumstances as if their conviction did not happen.

Their conviction becomes ‘spent’ a set period of time after someone has completed their sentence. This is the case for all but the most serious offences.

Once something is spent, it doesn’t have to be disclosed except for limited circumstances – such as if someone wants to work in certain regulated settings. Similarly, something becoming spent doesn’t restrict any safeguarding processes, which are generally managed by the barring process.

This is the power of the ROA – putting the right in law for people to move on from their convictions, while also ensuring that the right people have access to the information they need to manage safeguarding risks.

The internet means nothing is truly forgotten

One of the biggest challenges in the last 50 years has been the digitisation of information and the explosion of the internet. Billions of people can access exhaustive amounts of information in the time it takes to type a question into your favourite search engine.

This means that information is rarely truly forgotten – including information about someone’s criminal record.

In particular, many news stories are now digitised, preserving details of offences forever. And search engines like Google and Bing mean these details are easily searchable.

This is especially a problem when someone with a criminal record is looking for a job. Even if they do not need to disclose a conviction to an employer, if that employer does an internet search as part of their recruitment practice, they may be able to find all the details anyway.

And of course, media articles are not the only way information is shared – social media is another big problem. There is little preventing people sharing details about cases from decades before and again, this will often be flagged in any general searches.

Real harm to people’s futures

The ROA has been undermined by the advance of technology, and this can cause real harm to people with criminal records who are trying to move on positively with their lives. We hear from hundreds of callers every year where the internet has had a huge impact on the disclosure of someone’s criminal history.

We’ve recently been contacted by someone who has been personally affected by this. A relatively minor conviction from their past is immortalised forever in Daily Mail articles. Every effort they have made to move on has been thwarted even though their conviction is spent. They are fighting this unfairness every way they can, and are preparing to take the media giant to court.

• Adam is crowdfunding to help with legal fees – if you can help in any way, please visit his donation page.

In Adam’s case, Google have removed links to the Daily Mail articles in the UK, but they can still be found via the Daily Mail site and from other countries. Other search engines have not been as helpful, so the articles are still easily accessible.

It is worth noting that the effect of online articles can be hugely disproportionate.

You can imagine that if your name is John Smith, it is much more unlikely that people will find information about you than if you have a more distinct or unique sounding name. This is especially true for non-anglicised names, so can be a real problem for people from minoritised communities.

Time to review the ROA

It’s time for an update of the legislation governing the criminal records system. 

This is why we are calling on the ROA to be reviewed and updated to ensure it is still as fair and effective as when it was introduced 50 years ago.

Over the next year, up until the anniversary of when the ROA was actually brought in (July 1975), we will be discussing this and other issues about how the ROA is working 50 years on.

Share your story

We would love to hear from you if the internet has impacted on your chance to move on positively. Or if the ROA doesn’t work for you in any other way.

• Email policy@unlock.org.uk