Ministers are keen to reform the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act because it is now almost 40 years old. Proposals are currently going through Parliament to cut the current 10 years it takes for a 6 to 30-month sentence to be spent to be reduced to 4 years. The rules for sentences of over 4 years will not change and will remain unspent. The proposal will be included in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act leading to a reduction in the time in which convictions become spent in England and Wales and would see criminals’ records cleared earlier. For example, Community Order sentences, currently live for 5 years, would be spent after a year; the period for sentences of up to 6 months in custody would reduce from 7 years to 2 years and sentences of 30 months to 4 years, which are currently never spent, would only remain live for 7 years under the plans – and could relate to some serious assaults and sexual assaults. The proposal would mean a change from the current system where the unspent period would start from the beginning of the sentence; the new system, whilst introducing shorter periods for a sentence to become spent, would also require it to start from the end of the sentence imposed.
The proposal would shorten the period during which a conviction was unspent and has to be declared to prospective employers, insurance companies and in civil proceedings (spent convictions do not have to be declared). The proposal is aimed at getting offenders who have served their sentences back into work. The government believes that work reduces re-offending. “Criminals must be suitably punished for their crimes,” said Justice Minister Lord McNally. “but it is no good for anyone if they go to jail and come out and then can’t get an honest job and so turn back to crime again.” This was borne out by Juliet Lyon, Director of the Prison Reform Trust who said people who are unemployed and homeless on leaving prison have a reoffending rate of 74% during the year after custody, compared with 43% of those with a job and somewhere to live.
The change would not affect work exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act, for example those working with vulnerable people and children and in schools and hospitals.

