What is the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974

The provisions for a conviction or caution to become spent are laid out in the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (ROA).

The ROA primarily exists to support the rehabilitation into employment of reformed offenders who have stayed on the right side of the law.

Under the ROA, all cautions and convictions may eventually become spent, except those that result in prison sentences of over four years and all public protection sentences regardless of the length of sentence.

Additionally, if an offender has a conviction that is excluded from rehabilitation such as the above, previous convictions that were unspent at the time they were convicted would also never be spent.

Once a conviction is spent, the offender is considered rehabilitated. The conviction won’t show up on a Basic DBS Check and the person will not have to declare its existence in most circumstances, unless an exception applies.

The exceptions where you may have to disclose spent cautions and convictions are listed in the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975.

These are jobs and activities for which fuller disclosure of a person’s criminal record history is relevant; for example, where there is a risk to children, other people in vulnerable circumstances or some other particularly sensitive areas of work.

In these circumstances, you will usually be required to undergo a Standard or Enhanced DBS Check.