Section 13
Disqualifying criteria for Criminal Record Checks
Disqualifying convictions
Terrorism
Assisting terrorism
Committing terrorism
Directing terrorist acts
Failing to disclose information of material assistance in preventing terrorism
Possessing articles or information likely to be useful to terrorism
Using money or property for the purposes of terrorism
Offences against the person
Administering poison
Assault occasioning actual bodily harm
Assault with intent to resist arrest
Assaulting a police officer
Attempted murder
Attempting to choke
Causing bodily injury by explosives
Child abduction
Cruelty to a child
Endangering safety of railway passengers
Endangering the safety of an aircraft
False Imprisonment
Grievous bodily harm
Ill treatment of a mental patient
Kidnapping
Manslaughter
Murder
Sending explosive substances
Threats to kill
Unlawful wounding
Theft & Dishonesty
Aggravated burglary
Aggravated vehicle taking
Assault with intent to rob
Blackmail
Burglary
Dishonest representation for obtaining a benefit or advantage
Dishonestly retaining a wrongful credit
Evasion of liability by deception
False accounting
Forgery
Handling stolen goods
Making off without payment
Obtaining pecuniary advantage by deception
Obtaining property or services by deception
Robbery
Theft
Sexual offences
Abuse of children through prostitution or pornography
Attempted rape
Exploitation of prostitution
Indecency with a child
Indecent assault
Living on the earnings of prostitution
Procuration of a woman to become a prostitute
Rape
Taking or making indecent photographs or pseudo photographs of children
Trafficking for sexual exploitation
Sexual activity, assault or rape of a child
Unlawful sexual intercourse
Controlled or illegal drugs
Assisting the production, supply, import or export of controlled or illegal drugs
Import or export of controlled or illegal drugs
Production or supply of controlled or illegal drugs
Criminal damage
Arson
Attempt to cause explosion
Causing an explosion likely to endanger life or property
Conspiracy to cause explosion
Destroying or damaging property
Making or possession of explosive
Threats to destroy or damage
Firearms
Carrying any loaded firearm in a public place
Non-compliance with conditions of firearm certificate or licence
Possession of a firearm without a certificate or licence
Selling firearm to person without a certificate or licence
Shortening a shotgun or other smooth bore gun
Trading in firearms without being registered as a firearms dealer
Immigration
Assisting unlawful immigration
Unlawful immigration
Bomb and threat hoaxes
Communicating false information alleging the presence of bombs or threats
Placing or dispatching articles to cause bomb or threat hoax
Offensive weapons
Manufacture or distribution of offensive weapons
Possession of an offensive weapon
REHABILITATION OF OFFENDERS ACT 1974
Under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 criminal convictions can become spent or ignored after a
rehabilitation period, although they remain on the Police National Computer. The rehabilitation period
varies depending on the sentence or order imposed by the court - not the offence. Custodial sentences of
more than two and half years can never become spent. The following sentences become spent after fixed
periods from the date of conviction:
Sentence
Rehabilitation
period
Rehabilitation
period
Age 18 or over
when convicted
Age 17 or under
when convicted
Prison sentences of 6 months or less, including suspended
7 years
sentences, youth custody (abolished in 1988) and detention in
a young offender institution
3 and half years
Prison sentences of more than 6 months to 2 and half years,
including suspended sentences, youth custody (abolished in
1988) and detention in a young offender institution
10 years
5 years
Borstal (abolished in 1983)
7 years
7 years
Detention Centres (abolished in 1988)
3 years
3 years
Fines (even if subsequently imprisoned for fine default),
5 years
compensation, probation (for convictions on or after 3
February 1995), community service, combination, action plan,
curfew, drug treatment and testing and reparation orders
2 and half years
Absolute discharge
6 months
6 months
With some sentences, the rehabilitation period varies:
Sentence
Rehabilitation Period
Conditional discharge or bind-over, probation (for convictions 1 year or until the order expires
before 3 February 1995), supervision, care-orders
(whichever is longer)
Attendance centre orders
1 year after the order expires
Hospital orders )with or without a restriction order)
5 years or 2 years after the order expires
(whichever is longer)
Referral Order
Once the order expires
Where more than one disqualifying offence appears on a certificate and those offences are
“consecutive offences” the sentences must be added together to establish the total amount of a
custodial sentence and therefore the applicable rehabilitation period.
Where more than one disqualifying offence appears on a certificate and those offences are
“concurrent offences” the sentences should not be added together to establish the total amount of
custodial sentence.