Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974: Spent Convictions and DBS Checks

Under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, spent convictions are old convictions that, after a set waiting period tied to the sentence, no longer have to be disclosed for most purposes in England and Wales. Once a conviction is spent, you are treated in law as if the offence never happened, so you generally do not need to mention it on job applications, insurance forms, or housing paperwork.¹ The waiting period depends on what sentence was imposed, and the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 cut many of those periods.

How Long Until a Prison Sentence Is Spent

For custodial sentences, the clock does not start on the day you leave prison. It starts when the whole sentence ends, including any time on licence or supervision afterwards. Suspended sentences are treated by the length the court imposed, not the suspension period.²

Since the 2022 changes, prison sentences sit in three bands:³

One year or less: spent 12 months after the sentence ends (6 months if you were under 18 when convicted).
More than one year and up to four years: spent 4 years after the sentence ends (2 years for under-18s).
More than four years, for offences not permanently excluded: spent 7 years after the sentence ends (42 months for under-18s).

So someone released from a two-year sentence who then serves a year on licence starts the four-year rehabilitation period from the end of that licence, not from release.²

How Long Until a Non-Custodial Sentence Is Spent

Non-custodial outcomes become spent more quickly, and some are spent straight away. Most of these periods run from the date of conviction or the end of the order, not from the end of any licence.¹

Fines: spent 1 year after the date of conviction (6 months for under-18s).
Community orders and youth rehabilitation orders: spent when the order ends. If no end date is specified, 2 years from conviction.
Conditional discharges: spent when the discharge period ends.
Absolute discharges: spent immediately.
Simple cautions and youth cautions: spent immediately.
Conditional cautions: spent after 3 months, or earlier if you meet the conditions.
Compensation orders: spent only once the full amount has been paid.

Compensation orders are the one disposal where the timing is entirely in your hands. Drag payment out over years and the conviction stays unspent that whole time. Paying off the balance is the only way to start the clock.

Sentences That Never Become Spent

Some sentences are permanently excluded from the Act and have to be disclosed for life whenever disclosure is legally required. The main ones are:

Custodial sentences of more than four years for offences listed in Schedule 18 of the Sentencing Act 2020. Schedule 18 covers certain serious violent, sexual, and terrorist offences.³
Life sentences, detention during His Majesty’s pleasure, imprisonment or detention for public protection, and extended sentences for dangerous offenders.

The distinction people often get wrong: a sentence of more than four years for an offence that is not on Schedule 18 can become spent, after seven years from the end of the sentence (42 months for under-18s). The same length of sentence for a Schedule 18 offence never will.²

What a Spent Conviction Actually Means

Once a conviction is spent, in law you are treated as if it never happened. In practice three things follow.¹

You do not have to disclose a spent conviction when asked by an employer, insurer, landlord, or educational institution, unless an exception applies. If an application form asks whether you have any criminal convictions and all your convictions are spent, you can lawfully answer no. An employer cannot lawfully refuse to hire you, dismiss you, or otherwise disadvantage you because of a spent conviction where no exception applies. And in a defamation claim, someone who publishes details of your spent conviction cannot rely on a defence of truth if they published with malice.⁴

Insurance

Insurance is not an exempted area, so you do not have to tell insurers about spent convictions. If a motor or home insurance application asks whether you have any convictions, you can read it as asking only about unspent ones.¹ Failing to disclose an unspent conviction when an insurer asks is a different matter and can give the insurer grounds to void your policy and refuse a claim.

If You Pick Up a New Conviction Before the Old One Is Spent

A new conviction during the rehabilitation period for an earlier one can push both back. If neither sentence is one that can never become spent, the shorter rehabilitation period is stretched to match the longer one, and both convictions become spent together when the longer period ends.⁴

There is an exception. Summary-only offences and low-value either-way offences tried summarily do not trigger this linking. A speeding fine during a rehabilitation period will not drag the earlier conviction along with it.

If the new conviction attracts a sentence that can never become spent, the earlier conviction also stays unspent for life.

Jobs Where You Still Have to Disclose

Certain roles are carved out of the Act under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975. For these, employers can lawfully ask about spent convictions and you have to answer honestly. The exempted areas include:⁵

Healthcare roles including doctors, nurses, dentists, midwives, pharmacists, and anyone with access to patients in a health services setting.
Legal and judicial roles including barristers, solicitors, judicial appointments, court clerks, and probation officers.
Work with children or young people, including teachers, social services staff, youth club employees, and proprietors of independent schools.
Law enforcement, including police constables, cadets, and any role aimed at preventing, detecting, or investigating offences.
Financial regulation roles including chartered accountants, directors and managers of insurance companies, and securities dealers.
Other sensitive roles such as firearms dealers, managers of care homes and mental health facilities, and gaming industry staff.

Disclosure for these roles happens through a Standard or Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, and an Enhanced check can also include relevant police intelligence. The important point is that this is not a blanket licence to ask: an employer can only request a Standard or Enhanced DBS check where the role is covered by the Exceptions Order. For an ordinary role outside that list, there is no legal right to ask about your spent convictions.⁶

When a Spent Conviction Still Will Not Show on a DBS Check

Even for exempted roles, filtering rules remove some older or less serious records from DBS certificates. Since October 2023, the position is as follows.⁷

Three things always show on a Standard or Enhanced DBS certificate, no matter how old:

Any conviction for a “specified offence” on the parliamentary list, which covers serious violence, sexual offences, and safeguarding-related crimes.⁸
Any conviction that resulted in a custodial sentence, including suspended ones.
Any adult caution for a specified offence.

Everything else filters out after enough time. An adult conviction for a non-specified offence that did not result in a custodial sentence is removed from DBS certificates after 11 years. Adult cautions for non-specified offences filter out after 6 years. Youth cautions, warnings, and reprimands are not automatically disclosed at all.⁶

The old multiple conviction rule has gone. Having more than one conviction no longer blocks filtering across the board; each conviction is now assessed on its own against the filtering criteria.⁶

Travel Abroad

A conviction spent under UK law is not automatically spent for immigration purposes elsewhere. The US ESTA application for visa-free travel, for example, asks about arrests and convictions for certain crimes and expects an answer whether or not the conviction is spent in the UK.⁹ The 1974 Act is domestic law and has no effect on another country’s rules. Check the entry requirements of the destination before you book.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

The 1974 Act applies across Great Britain, but Scotland runs its own rehabilitation periods and disclosure regime through Disclosure Scotland, and Northern Ireland operates separately through AccessNI. A conviction that is spent in England and Wales may not be spent in Scotland or Northern Ireland, and the other way around. If you have lived across different parts of the UK, check your position under each jurisdiction’s rules before relying on a conviction being spent.

1
GOV.UK. Guidance on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and the Exceptions Order 1975
2
GOV.UK. Rehabilitation Periods
3
Legislation.gov.uk. Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 – Explanatory Notes – Section 193: Rehabilitation of Offenders
4
Legislation.gov.uk. Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974
5
Legislation.gov.uk. Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975
6
GOV.UK. DBS Filtering Guide
7
GOV.UK. New Filtering Rules for DBS Certificates (From 28 October 2023 Onwards)
8
GOV.UK. DBS List of Offences That Will Never Be Filtered from a Criminal Record Check
9
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Frequently Asked Questions About the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) and the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA)