Spent Convictions - How They Affect can you

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Spent Convictions - How They Affect can you
People who have had criminal convictions very often ask, how long it will be on their record for or when does it become spent? Well The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act dictates how long offences are on the record before they're deemed to be spent; that is that they no longer have to disclose them.
I'm not going to go through the list of all the offenses and what the rehabilitation periods are because they’re covered in the act but if there has been a custodial sentence longer than two and a half years, then unfortunately, the conviction is never spent.
Cautions are spent immediately. So if you have an offence that's been spent and you're applying for a job and it says
'Do you have any spent convictions?',
You have to disclose even spent ones.
If it says
“Do you have any convictions?”
You don't have to disclose it, even if it's spent.
However, there are certain occupations whereby, it doesn't matter whether it's spent or not, you still have to disclose it. The list is quite long, so forgive me if I read it and it's not definitive, there's actually more to it than this, but I'll give you the common ones.
Remember, if you ever apply to one of these titled jobs, you're going to always have to disclose spent convictions. There are some obvious ones such as working with children and so forth, but let me give you the list.
I'm going to read it:
Accountants,
Nurses,
Midwives,
Chiropractors,
Opticians,
Dealers in Security,
Osteopaths,
Dentists,
Dental Hygienists,
Pharmaceutical Chemists,
Controlling Directors of Insurance Companies,
Building Societies,
Police constables,
Prison board of visitors,
Prison Officers,
Fire arms dealers,
Probation Officers,
Judicial appointments,
Justice or chief executive,
Justice's clerks and assistants,
lawyers like me,
managers of trustees and unit trusts,
medical practitioners,
teachers,
veterinary surgeons,
traffic wardens, lots of occupations.
Anything to do with National shore,
National Security,
Atomic Energy Authority,
Civil agent,
Civil aviator authority or as an Officer of the crown.
Lots and lots of occupations where you will, always, have to disclose spent convictions.
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