Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974

The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 of the UK Parliament enables some criminal convictions to be ignored after a rehabilitation period. Its purpose is that people do not have a lifelong blot on their records because of a minor indiscretion in their past. The rehabilitation period is automatically determined by the sentence, and starts from the date of the conviction. After this period free of further convictions, the conviction is "spent", and with certain exceptions an ex-offender is not obliged to mention a spent conviction in any context, including when applying for a job, or obtaining insurance, or in civil proceedings.

For adults, the rehabilitation period is 5 years for most non-custodial sentences, 7 years for prison sentences of up to 6 months, and 10 years for prison sentences of between 6 and 30 months. For a young offender (under 18) the rehabilitation period is generally half that for adults. Prison sentences of more than two and a half years can never be spent.

Certain professions and employments are exempt from the Act so that individuals are not allowed to withhold details of previous convictions in relation to their job when applying for positions in similar fields. These professions include :

* Those working with children and other vulnerable groups, such as teachers and social workers
* Those working in professions associated with the justice system, such as solicitor, police, court clerk, probation officer, prison officer and traffic warden
* Doctors, dentists, chemists or nurses
* Accountants

There are also a number of proceedings before a "judicial authority" (widely defined) that are excluded from the Act, and where spent convictions can be disclosed. These include applications for adoption or fostering, and for firearms certificates.

Rehabilitation Act and actions for libel under British law

According to "Law and the Media," a reference work relating to British media law, if a person can prove that the details of a spent conviction were published with malice, then the publisher may be subject to libel damages regardless of whether the details were true or not. This applies where the publisher is relying on a defence of qualified privilege or justification.

As a result, although British media remain free to publish the details of spent convictions, provided they are not motivated by malice, they generally avoid mention of such convictions after rehabilitation.cite book |last=Crone |first=Tom |coauthor=et al. |title=Law and the Media |date=2002-06-05 |publisher=Focal Press |id= ISBN 0-240-51629-X |pages=14-15]

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