The Government is amending the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill to provide for a reduction in “rehabilitation periods”, i.e. the amount of time for which offenders have to declare the previous commission of certain offences to prospective employers.
Under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, criminal convictions become “spent” after a defined rehabilitation period from the date of conviction, and depends on the type and length of sentence. The Government intends to reduce the rehabilitation periods and under the new system the rehabilitation periods will start from the point when an offender completes their sentence, rather than at the date of their conviction. For example, a sentence of between 6 and 30 months, which, for an adult, currently has a rehabilitation period of 10 years from the date of conviction, will have a rehabilitation period of four years from the end of the sentence under the new provisions. In addition, the amendment will increase the length of a custodial sentence required for a conviction never to become spent from over 30 months to over 4 years. However, offenders will still have to declare previous convictions when applying for jobs in sensitive workplaces like schools or working with vulnerable people.
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