The number of people with unspent convictions

We regularly get asked how many people have unspent convictions.

Since the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act was amended in March 2014, the number of people whose conviction is unspent is expected to have reduced significantly, but nobody really knows by how much.

So, as a first attempt, we’ve pulled together some data which tries to do this, and the key findings are below.

Key findings

1. Before the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 reforms, which came into force on the 10th March 2014, there were approximately 2,514,987 individuals with unspent convictions in England & Wales.
2. Following the reforms to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, which came into force on the 10th March 2014, there were approximately 735,652 individuals with unspent convictions in England & Wales.
3. 7,232 individuals receive a conviction each year that can never become spent.

Additional findings

• 2.03% of people that apply for a basic disclosure in England & Wales have unspent convictions disclosed.
• 6.94% of people that apply for a basic disclosure in Scotland have unspent convictions.
• 89% of the basic disclosures that Disclosure Scotland carry out are for people in England & Wales.

Got a different way of working this out?

We are interested in hearing about the efforts of others to better define the number of people with  unspent convictions. Please send your thoughts to policy@unlock.org.uk or comment on this post below.