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For people with criminal records
For people with criminal records

Tag: ROA

Reforming the criminal records disclosure regime – Have you a sentence of over 4 years in prison?

We’ve published an updated briefing on reforming the criminal records disclosure regime and we want to hear from you if you have a conviction that can never become spent.

The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (ROA) means that most convictions can become spent after a period of years. Changes implemented in 2014 (through focused mainly on reducing rehabilitation periods. However, the current law means more than 8000 people every year receive sentences that mean they can never be legally rehabilitated and will have to declare them for the rest of their life – on job applications, for housing or insurance.

A never spent conviction is a lifelong barrier to moving on. We think this should change and that’s we we’re campaigning for ROA reform. As part of our campaign, we use case studies to show why reform is necessary to help law abiding people with convictions move on.

What we need from you

If you have a conviction that can never become spent (i.e. a prison sentence of over 4 years), please contact us at policy@unlock.org.uk using the subject header ‘Call for evidence: ROA reform’. Please include:

  • Your name
  • Your date of birth
  • Contact details (email and/or telephone) and how you’d like us to contact you
  • The details of all your cautions/convictions including dates and a DBS certificate if you have one
  • The difficulties you’ve faced, recently or in the past, as a result of your criminal record not becoming spent
  • If you would be willing to contribute to any media coverage on this issue in future (this is for our reference, we won’t share your details without consent)

Any information you provide will be kept in line with our confidentiality policy. Any personal information provided to us will not be shared externally without your consent.

Find out more about how we handle your data

Find out more about our work on ROA reform.

Were you given a compensation order in court? Remember to tell the DBS once it’s paid

Our helpline regularly receives contact from individuals concerned to find that a conviction they’d believed was spent under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 is still showing on their basic DBS certificate.

There are many reasons why this might be the case, but one of the things that our helpline advisors will ask is whether the person received a compensation order as part of their sentence.

Compensation orders only become spent once they’re paid in full. So, if you’ve not paid it, your conviction will still show on your basic check.

But, even when you have paid it, your conviction may still show on your basic DBS certificate. This is because there is currently no system in place which allows a court to update the DBS that an order has been settled in full. In practice, the onus is on you to provide proof of payment to the DBS when you apply for your basic check. (you don’t have to do this every time, just once).

The only time the DBS will consider a compensation order spent under the ROA without having any proof of payment from you is when it:

  1. was for an amount of less than £100 or
  2. is over 6 years old.

Let the DBS know you’ve paid the compensation order?

You’ll need to get proof that your order has been paid in full from the court where you were sentenced. Depending on the court, this may be in the form of a receipt or a letter. There isn’t usually a charge for this.

You should send a copy of this receipt/letter to the DBS either with your application or separately, in confidence, if your application is being submitted via a third party. Remember to quote your application barcode or reference number together with your name, address and date of birth in any correspondence.

Once they’ve received this, the DBS will be able to update their records and your conviction will no longer appear on your basic DBS certificate.

For more information

Moving on: The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act and the benefits of a spent conviction

This month, we’ve written another article for Inside Times ‘Through the Gate’ section which focuses on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act.

A copy of the article can be found below.

How do I know when my conviction will become spent and what will that mean for me?

The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (ROA) gives each sentence a ‘rehabilitation period’. This is essentially the time it takes to become spent, and during this period your conviction is considered ‘unspent’. Once it’s passed, and assuming you don’t receive any further convictions, then your conviction will become spent. Once spent, you no longer have to disclose it when applying for the majority of jobs or when purchasing insurance.

Unless you’ve received a prison sentence of more than 4 years, then you’ll benefit from the ROA at some point in the future (and we’re campaigning for it to cover sentences of over 4 years too).

So what are the benefits when a conviction becomes spent?

The main benefits relate to applying for work and getting insurance. Generally, once spent you don’t need to disclose it.

Applying for work or volunteering

Providing the role you’re applying for is not ‘exempt’ from the ROA then you won’t need to disclose your conviction to an employer once it’s spent, and it won’t appear on a basic Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

Roles which are typically covered include:

  • Retail work;
  • Hospitality industry;
  • Construction industry;
  • Office work

Applying for insurance

Once your conviction is spent, the law gives you the right not to disclose it when applying for insurance, no matter what question an insurance company asks. Most insurers only ask you to disclose unspent convictions although some might ask for ‘any convictions in the last five years’. If your conviction is spent, you don’t need to disclose it under any circumstances.

Are there any areas where the ROA doesn’t apply?

Yes. These include:

  • Working and volunteering in roles ‘exempt’ from the ROA – If you’re looking to work with children or vulnerable adults then different rules apply;
  • Working or volunteering outside England and Wales – Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own version of the ROA but they differ in a number of ways. It could be that your conviction would be spent in England but remain unspent in Scotland;
  • Travelling abroad – Each country will have their own entry requirements regarding people with convictions. It’s always best to check before you book any holiday;
  • Coming to, or applying to stay in, the UK (for example applying for citizenship).

How do I work out when my conviction becomes spent?

If you only have one conviction it should be relatively straightforward to work out by using the table included in this article.

If you have several convictions you may find it easier to use Unlock’s online calculator which can be found at www.disclosurecalculator.org.uk – someone with internet access can use this for you and then print the results.

Can I get a formal record of my unspent convictions?

Yes, you can get a print-out of your unspent convictions by applying for a basic DBS certificate from the Disclosure and Barring Service. The cost is currently £25. When you start applying for jobs you’ll find that many employers carry out basic DBS checks as part of their recruiting process.

Is there anything else I should know?

You can legally ‘lie’

Although most employers and insurers are clear about when you only have to disclose unspent convictions, some ask misleading questions like …”Have you ever …”. So long as the ROA applies, you can legally ‘lie’ about your past convictions by answering ‘no’ to the question.

It’s the sentence you received, not time served

The time it takes to become spent is based on the sentence imposed by the court, not the time you serve in prison. For example, if you received an 8-month sentence but were released after 4 months, your rehabilitation period will be based on the 8-month sentence.

Court orders

If you’ve received an ‘ancillary’ or ‘relevant’ order in addition to your prison sentence; for example a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) or Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) then your conviction will not become spent until the end of the order. If the order is indefinite, this essentially means that your conviction will not be spent until you apply to have it amended or discharged.

Myth busters

There’s a lot of hearsay and misleading information relating to spent convictions, some of the most common being:

  • Myth: “Once a conviction’s spent it’s wiped off the Police National Computer”

Although you won’t need to disclose it and it won’t appear on a basic DBS certificate, it will remain on the PNC until you’re 100 years of age.

  • Myth: “If you’ve received a conviction for a sexual or violent offence it will never be spent”

Providing you didn’t receive a prison sentence of over 4 years (or a sentence like an IPP sentence), your conviction will become spent at some point, irrespective of the nature of the offence.

  • Myth: “Your conviction won’t be spent until you’ve come off the Sex Offenders Register”

The notification requirement is not regarded as a disqualification or court order and is separate to how long it takes for a conviction to become spent. It’s quite common for a conviction to become spent but for an individual to still be subject to the notification requirements.

Do you have a conviction that will never be spent?

Unlock has long campaigned for fundamental changes to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (ROA), legislation that governs the disclosure of criminal records to employers, educational institutions, insurers and housing providers. Changes implemented in 2014 (through the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act 2012) focused mainly on reducing rehabilitation periods.
More than 8000 people every year receive a sentence of more than four years. As the law stands, these can never become spent meaning people will have to declare them for the rest of their life – on job applications, for housing or insurance. An unspent conviction is a lifelong barrier to moving on.
We think this should change and that’s we we’re campaigning for ROA reform. As part of our campaign, we use case studies to show why reform is necessary to help law abiding people with convictions move on.

What we need from you

If you have a conviction that can never become spent (i.e. a prison sentence of over 4 years), please contact us at policy@unlock.org.uk using the subject header ‘Call for evidence: ROA reform’. Please include:

  • Your name
  • Your date of birth
  • Contact details (email and/or telephone) and how you’d like us to contact you
  • The details of all your cautions/convictions including dates and a DBS certificate if you have one
  • The difficulties you’ve faced, recently or in the past, as a result of your criminal record not becoming spent
  • If you would be willing to contribute to any media coverage on this issue in future (this is for our reference, we won’t share your details without consent)

Any information you provide will be kept in line with our confidentiality policy. Any personal information provided to us will not be shared externally without your consent.

Find out more about how we handle your data

Find out more about our work on ROA reform.

 

What affect does a driving endorsement have on when a motoring conviction becomes spent?

Our helpline often receives calls from people who have received driving convictions and are confused about when this will become spent under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act.

Some of the more serious driving offences could result in your licence being revoked (i.e. you are banned from driving) and even a prison sentence. However, in addition to these specific disposals, your driving licence is usually endorsed.

In the days of paper licences, it was easy to see that your licence had been endorsed. Following a court hearing, you’d normally be instructed to send off your licence to the DVLA and it would be returned to you with a code added to it. For example SP30 (if you’ve been found guilty of speeding on a public road) or DR10 (for a drink driving conviction).

Now that we no longer have paper licences, endorsements are kept electronically by the DVLA.

In terms of when the conviction becomes spent, it’s important to look at the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act. Basically, depending what sentence/disposal is received, it takes the relevant ‘rehabilitation period’ to become spent. If you receive more than one sentence/disposal, it’s the longest rehabilitation period that applies.

For example, if Mr Motor is banned from driving for three years but also receivs a fine which, on its own, takes one year to become spent, the rehabilitation period would be 3 years as it would be based on the disposal with the longest rehabilitation period.

However, Mr Motor was also given an endorsement. Endorsements for road traffic offences have their own rehabilitation period of 5 years (2.5 years if you’re under 18 at the time). A list of endorsement codes can be found here.

So, Mr Motor’s conviction would not actually become spent for 5 years due to the addition of the endorsement to his licence.

If you’re in any doubt about whether you’ve got an endorsement, you can check your own driving licence at the DVLA Shared Driving Licence Scheme. You could also do a Subject Access Request, as this is the information that is used to process basic disclosures.

Once you’re clear about what’s on your criminal record, you can then work out when your conviction becomes spent. Try using our disclosure calculator to do it for you. If you think something is spent, you can always double-check by applying for your own basic disclosure.

For more information

  1. For more practical self-help information – Find out more information on motoring convictions and the ROA.
  2. Questions – If you have any questions about this, you can contact our helpline.

An update on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974

It’s been just over 3 months since the changes to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 came into force in England & Wales. At that time, we published an update which featured new materials that we’d produced, as well as our updated detailed guidance.

Since that point, we’ve learnt quite a bit about how these changes are working in practice, mainly through cases that have come through our helpline. So we thought it was about time we produced another update, highlighting a couple of important practical areas.

Get a copy of your basic disclosure

As you will read below, there have been quite a few examples where people have been surprised to see what’s on their basic disclosure. Often, this is because they thought that their convictions were spent since the ROA changes came in, but for various reasons, that hasn’t been the case.

As a result, and given many people are relying on the ROA changes to make important life-decisions (such as moving jobs, applying for jobs without disclosing, not having to disclose when buying insurance), we think it’s important to emphasise the importance of checking for yourself by applying for our own basic disclosure. It costs £25. This will allow you to raise any queries that you might have, and make sure ultimately that what you think is spent and unspent is actually the case.

Find out more about basic disclosures.

Court orders

One area is has caused a lot of confusion is how ‘court orders’ are treated by the Act. We’ve seen many people think that their conviction becomes spent earlier than what it seems to be doing, because they didn’t realise that alongside their conviction they were given a ‘court order’ that can have an effect on the rehabilitation period.

The most common court orders we’ve found causing people difficulties are Compensation Orders, Restraining Orders and Sexual Offence Prevention Orders.

For example, if somebody received a 1 year community order as an adult, this would normally become spent 1 year after the end of the order. However, if they were also given a 3 year restraining order, the conviction wouldn’t become spent until that order ends

The way in which these ‘ancillary orders’ (as they’re known) are impacting on how long it takes for a conviction to become spent is something that we’re collecting evidence about at the moment. If you have a copy of your basic disclosure which shows that your conviction is still unspent because of a court order, please send us copies, as we’re keen to understand what types of orders this is affecting – email them to policy@unlock.org.uk.

Find out more about court orders in our detailed guidance.

SOPOs and Sexual Offences

Another area of confusion relates to Sexual Offence Prevention Orders (SOPO’s). The view of the Ministry of Justice is that SOPO falls within the definition in the ROA of an “order that imposes a prohibition”, so the rehabilitation period ends on the date when the prohibition ceases to have effect. This will depend on the length of the SOPO. This means that a conviction cannot become spent until the SOPO that relates to that conviction ends. It follows that if a SOPO is imposed for an indefinite period then it will be subject to disclosure indefinitely, until the SOPO is ended in some other way (e.g. going back to court to get the end date amended).

Find out more about SOPO’s.

However, this is separate to the sexual offender notification requirement. This does not constitute “any disqualification, disability, prohibition or other penalty” and so does not effect when a conviction becomes spent.

Compensation orders

These are only regarded as spent once they are paid in full. Unfortunately, there is no record kept on the Police National Computer that compensation orders are paid, and this is all that Disclosure Scotland see when they process basic checks.

This means that Disclosure Scotland advise people to try and obtain proof of payment from the court and keep this document to prove that the compensation order has been paid in full.

This is something that we are challenging at the moment, as we don’t believe that this system is workable. It’s not particularly clear when you apply for a basic disclosure that you have to provide this proof, and many people don’t even realise they have a compensation order. If you end up receiving your disclosure without providing proof, you have to pay for another application, alongside your proof of payment, to have an accurate one issued.

However, while this situation remains as it is, you’ll need to provide proof. In England & Wales, you can obtain a letter of confirmation from the court when any compensation order has been paid in full. There is guidance in the magistrates’ courts’ staff manual as to the wording to be used in a proof of payment letter relating to compensation orders. If you didn’t get this at the time of paying the compensation, you should be able to get something from the court at a later stage.

A copy of that letter should be provided to Disclosure Scotland either with your application or separately in confidence if your application is being submitted via a third party.

To submit proof of payment independently of submitting an application, you can send it:

You should quote your application barcode or reference number, or your name, current address, and date of birth in your communication.

Once you’ve submitted proof once, Disclosure Scotland should keep this on file in case you have to apply for a further disclosure in the future.

Extended ‘supervision periods’ under the Offender Rehabilitation Act 2013

As part of the Government’s recent changes to prisons, probation and sentences, people sentenced to less than 12 months in prison will have an ‘extended supervision period’ meaning that they’ll have at least 12 months supervision on release. This has led to questions about whether this effects when a conviction becomes spent under the ROA. We can confirm that the headline sentence will remain the same for ROA purposes. The ‘buffer’ part of the rehabilitation period will start from the end of the original sentence.  The extra supervision period is post-sentence and does not affect the rehabilitation period for the conviction.

For example, if somebody was convicted as an adult in June 2014 and given 5 months in prison, the end of their sentence would be November 2014, so the conviction would become spent 2 years later (i.e. November 2016). The fact that the individual might be subject to ‘extended supervision’ into 2015 does not effect the ‘end of the sentence’ under the ROA.

Motoring convictions

There remains a lot of confusion about the way that motoring convictions are being dealt with under the ROA, particularly given the way that motoring offences are recorded (or not) on the Police National Computer, and what this means in practice for individuals in terms of applying for employment and insurance. We are working on some specific guidance at the moment on this, so if you have any information or experiences that you think would help with this guidance, please send them to policy@unlock.org.uk.

‘Easy Read’ guide on the ROA

Let’s not beat around the bush – the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act is still very complicated. Sadly, the Ministry of Justice’s guidance doesn’t do much to help make this issue easier to understand.

We have been pleased with the feedback we’ve had to the materials we produced when the reforms came into force – including our A3 poster, brief guidance and detailed guide. But we felt we needed something else.

So we were delighted to work in partnership with KeyRing to produce an ‘Easy Read’ guide on disclosing criminal records. ‘Easy Read’ documents present information using simple words and pictures that make information easier to understand.

Download the Easy Read guide.

Updated ‘ROA FAQs’ section

We’ve had some weird and wonderful questions in the last couple of months about how the ROA works. We’ve been working hard to keep a track of some of the most common ones, and we’ve recently updated our FAQ’s section on the ROA with some of these.

Send us your examples/evidence

We are constantly looking to gather examples and evidence of the issues that surround the way the new Rehabilitation of Offenders Act reforms are working in practice. If you were surprised to see what’s come back on your basic disclosure, or if you’ve experienced some of the issues that we’ve mentioned in this update, please send any evidence you have (including copies of disclosures). Any details you send will be held confidentially, and only be used anonymously as part of our advocacy and policy work. Please send them to policy@unlock.org.uk.

An update on today’s historic changes to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974

Today is an historic day for Unlock. We’ve campaigned for many years to see changes to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act. It’s the first time in nearly 40 years since the legislation has been reformed in this way. It’s been quite a wait since the law received Royal Assent in 2012, but we’re delighted that we’ve finally got there.

Since we got notice of the implementation date, we’ve been working hard behind the scenes to make sure that we do all that we can to prepare for the changes.

We are also firmly of the belief that the changes don’t go far enough, and we’ve been doing a lot of work to try and make this clear.

The reason for this message is to set out the various things we’ve been working on. An ongoing update on the changes, in terms of what’s happening, is available at unlock.devchd.com/information-and-advice//changestotheroa/.

Updating our guidance

We’ve produced detailed guidance on the law as it now stands. This is quite lengthy, and focuses on some of the more technical aspects of the changes. We will be regularly reviewing and updating this as and when appropriate.

Producing practical materials

We’ve also produced practical materials that help to explain the changes to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act which came into force on the 10th March 2014. These resources will help you to understand whether convictions are now regarded as ‘spent’ under the reforms. They include:

  1. An ‘Is it spent?’ poster
  2. A brief guide

These are available to view online on our information hub, and you can download copies free of charge from the downloads section of our information hub.

Updating our Disclosure Calculator

We have updated our online tool, www.disclosurecalculator.org.uk, which helps people to work out whether their convictions are spent under the Act.

We’re still working on improving it further, so that it works better under the new law. For example, at the moment, it can only calculator prison sentences using months (not days or weeks) but we hope to rectify this soon. More details of some of the outstanding technical queries are explained below.

Raising awareness

We have been doing our best to try and make people aware of these changes, both in terms of how people will benefit and how the changes could (and should) got further.

Late last week, we issued a press release, and we’re keen to take part in any opportunities that are available where we can spread the word about these changes so that people understand their legal rights.

We’ve written articles for Criminal Law & Justice Weekly and Open Democracy. We’ve also written a blog for our online magazine, theRecord, asking whether the changes are enough.

For prisons in particular, we’ve recorded a piece for National Prison Radio, which will go out in the Prime Time slot. We’ve also submitted something for the next issue of Inside Time.

More broadly, we’re sending out our materials to prisons, probation areas, job centres, employment support programmes and voluntary agencies. You can download copies free of charge from the downloads section of our information hub, where you can also find out how to get hold of hard-copies.

If you know of people and organisations that might value this information, please forward them a link to this update.

Supporting practitioners and organisations – Running ‘Masterclasses’

To help share our knowledge and understanding of these changes, we’re running various masterclasses for practitioners and organisations. The one we’re holding in March is now sold out, and we’ve only got a few places left on our one on the 7th May, so book your place before you miss out. More details can be found here.

If you’re part of a project or service that has a number of people providing advice and support to people who have convictions, you might want to organise an ‘in-house’ masterclass, which can be for up to 10 individuals and works out cheaper per person that the bookable sessions. We’ve already got a number of these arranged for the coming months. More details can be found here.

Information session

We were delighted to run an information session in Maidstone last week, where we had various people turn up who, as a result of these changes, have found that their convictions will become spent much earlier. Quite a few found that their convictions become spent on the 10th March itself.

Technical queries

We are keeping a track of the technical elements to the Act that we are awaiting clarification from the Ministry of Justice on. This is a useful reference when reading our guidance or using our Disclosure Calculator. We will be adding to this based on the queries that we receive, and providing updates as and when we have them available.

Working with others

Business in the Community

We’ve worked with Business in the Community, who has produced a Guide and Top Tips for telling an employer about your criminal record

This guidance is for people with criminal convictions and their advisers. If you (or the person you support) want to get back to work but are worried about disclosing a criminal conviction, this accessible guidance helps you to:

  • Understand your criminal record
  • Check when you need to tell an employer about your criminal conviction(s)
  • Decide how you will tell an employer about your conviction(s)

Download the resources from the Business in the Community website (link with be live at some point on Monday 10th).

Ministry of Justice

We have been working closely with the Ministry of Justice on their guidance on the changes to the ROA. Although it’s not written in the style that we would choose, we provided comments on earlier draft versions to make sure that it was as clear as possible, and will continue to raise queries on an ongoing basis in the hope that they will clarify their guidance further (see outstanding technical queries below).

Sexual offences and the changes to the ROA

Since we got the news about the changes to the ROA coming in on the 10th March 2014, our helpline has had lots of people contacting us wanting to be sure about how it effects them.

One of the common mistakes we’re seeing is that people with convictions for sexual offences think that this alters the time they are subject to the notification requirements.

Unfortunately, the Government made it clear when passing these changes that they didn’t have any plans to alter the notification periods under the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

This means that it’s perfectly possible for you to have your conviction regarded as ‘spent’ under the ROA changes, but you still be subject to the notification requirements.

We’ve added some information to our page on sexual offences that hopefully helps to clarify this.

Finally, after 40 years, the laws on disclosing criminal records are changing for the better on the 10th March 2014

We’re delighted that, having campaigned for many years, the 10th March 2014 will finally see reforms to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 come into force. This means that many people will find that their conviction becomes ‘spent’ a lot sooner than it did previously. It only applies in England and Wales, but the changes are ‘retrospective’, which means it applies to people convicted before the March changes.

So, if you were sentenced in June 2013 to 1 year in prison, this would previously have taken 10 years to become ‘spent’. Under the changes, this will reduce to 4 years from the end of the full sentence (so June 2018). We continue to campaign for a system for people sentenced to over 4 years, but for many people it’s much better than what it was.

In practical terms, a ‘basic disclosure’ (which only reveals unspent convictions) will be available from Disclosure Scotland from the 10th March, and this will reflect the changes to the law in England and Wales. If your convictions are now spent, this should come back blank.

Sentences with a buffer period (sentence length includes time spent on licence)

Sentence

 

Time it takes to become spent
Adult (18+) at conviction/disposalYoung person (U18) at conviction/disposal
Prison
(including suspended prison sentences) 		Over 4 years or a public protection sentenceNever spentNever spent
More than 30 months and less than (or equal to) 4 yearsSentence + 7 yearsSentence + 3 ½ years
More than 6 months and less than (or equal to) 30 monthsSentence + 4 yearsSentence + 2 years
Less than (or equal to) 6 monthsSentence + 2 yearsSentence + 18 months
Community Order /
Youth Rehabilitation Order		Length of the order
+ 1 year		Length of the order
+ 6 months

What happens once it’s spent? Basically, it means you don’t have to disclose for most jobs, and insurance, and won’t be disclosed on a basic check. It doesn’t get deleted, and for jobs that involve standard or enhanced criminal record checks, it will continue to get disclosed in most cases.

We’re publishing a simple guide on the changes (once it’s ready, we can provide individual copies on request, and it’ll be available to download from our website). In the meantime, we have a brief guide on the changes.

We also know that staff and practitioners that provide employment support and careers advice will want to know more detail about the changes, so we’re holding ‘masterclasses’ on the changes. Details of these can be found here, or you contact us for further information.

There will be more information available in the coming weeks – we’ve set up a dedicated page on our Hub where we’ll bring together all of the latest developments.

Further delays to changes to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974

Please see below an update that we have received from the Ministry of Justice late last week regarding planned changes to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

Although we’re disappointed to bring you this news, we felt it was important to provide an update as soon as we knew that the situation had formally changed. This will not come as a surprise to some – the lack of an update from Government has led many people to rightly question whether the changes were going to come in by November. A thread has been running on our forum since January this year, questioning originally whether the changes were going to come in by Spring 2013.

Sadly, while it’s frustrating that it is no longer going to be November, the situation is undoubtedly made worse by the lack of a specific future date. To put it simply, although they are optimistic that they will be able to put an end to the uncertainty on the date of commencement fairly soon, they are still unable to give a definite timetable.

In our view, the combination of a delay plus the lack of a specific delay is unforgivable. When the initial reforms were passed in April 2012, a 12 month window was given to allow the Government time to get the necessary systems in place. The initial implementation date of Spring 2013 led to many people planning their lives on these changes. Our Helpline has been inundated with enquiries ever since from people who are desperately waiting for the changes to come in.

We are continuing to do all that we can so that the Government implement the reforms as soon as possible. We are urging the Government to announce a specific date for when the changes will be introduced. We are also meeting with MP’s with an interest on this issue to see what can be done to speed up this process.

To help, we encourage anybody who is personally affected by these delays, or feels passionately about the way this is being managed by Government, to write to their MP and ask them to raise this issue as a matter of priority with the Ministers of State for both the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice. You can encourage your MP’s office to contact us directly if they want to help in some way. Ultimately, it’s important that the Government realise how important these changes are, and how many peoples’ lives are being put on hold by these delays. However, the difficulty at this stage is in finding practical ways in which this process can influenced.

Update from the Ministry of Justice

Whilst the Government was aiming to commence the reforms by November this is not going to be possible but it remains committed to seeing these reforms in place, which will to the benefit of many ex-offenders, and it will give a firm timetable on commencement as soon as it can. As you know, the critical prerequisite for the commencement of the reforms is to put in place a system for producing basic disclosure certificates, which show unspent convictions, reflecting the new rehabilitation periods in England and Wales. Until we do that there would be no way for an individual to obtain an official statement of their unspent convictions under the new rules.

Currently, basic disclosures reflecting the existing rehabilitation periods are available from Disclosure Scotland and this service is provided to residents of England and Wales as well as Scotland. However, the reforms to the ROA only revise rehabilitation periods for England and Wales, leaving the position in Scotland unchanged under its legislation. This complicates matters and creates two different rehabilitation regimes within Great Britain.

One option to address this situation is to agree with Disclosure Scotland that they will provide two differential basic disclosure services, one reflecting the rules in Scotland and the other the rules in England and Wales. Another option is for the Disclosure and Barring Service to initiate a basic disclosure service for England and Wales which adheres to the reformed rules in this jurisdiction. Neither of these options is straightforward and there are significant business and technical issues to work through. However, the Government expects these issues to be resolved shortly.”

Questions?

If you have any questions about this information, please contact us.
If you’d like to discuss this information with others, there is a specific thread on our online forum.

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