Revealing your convictions and your involvement with the police

Information about your convictions or other involvement with the police is considered particularly sensitive, and is protected both by data protection laws the right to respect for privacy under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, as set out in the previous sections. On the other hand, there may be legitimate reasons why it will be necessary to disclose this information. Finding the appropriate balance between the public interest and your right to respect for your privacy is a difficult task.

The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (ROA) generally allows people to start with a clean slate after they have paid their debt to society. It does this by providing that after a certain amount of time, certain convictions will become “spent”. Once a conviction becomes spent you are not normally required to disclose it. However, this rule is subject to a number of important and wide-ranging exceptions.

There are different rules that apply when it comes to your own right to withhold information from other people about your past convictions, as opposed to the rights, powers and obligations of other people to share information that they may have about your past convictions and involvement with the police.