Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to update the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
This government has recently reviewed and made significant changes to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (ROA) 1974. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 amended the ROA to significantly reduce the length of time that someone needs to disclose most criminal records. These reforms will improve access to employment, which we know is a key factor in supporting rehabilitation and enabling former offenders to reintegrate into the community. Serious violent, sexual, or terrorist offences are excluded from these changes and continue to never be spent.
Where a person has a conviction disclosed, we are clear that this should not be an automatic bar to employment. Our guidance for employers states that they should make a balanced judgment on whether someone’s convictions make them unsuitable for a particular job. This should take into account the person’s age at the time of the offence, how long ago it took place, the nature of the offence and its relevance to the position in question, among other factors.
The ROA is kept under review. There are no current plans to make further changes, but please see further the answer I gave on 4 April to Question HL3362.
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government, excluding sexual or violent offences, under what circumstances can someone subject to an Imprisonment for Public Protection sentence who has completed their license period have earlier, minor offences dropped from their record.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (the ROA) sets out when an offender is considered to be ‘rehabilitated’ for the purposes of the Act and the relevant rehabilitation periods for cautions and convictions (also referred to as when a caution or a conviction become ‘spent’). This does not mean that an offence is dropped from their record, rather that the offender only needs to disclose the spent caution or conviction in some circumstances.
The ROA also provides that where a person commits another offence before the first has become spent, then the rehabilitation periods are extended to the longest period. The ROA sets out that, as with other indeterminate sentences, IPP sentences can never become spent, regardless of whether the licence is terminated or not. The same, therefore, applies to any unspent caution or conviction imposed on the offender prior to the IPP sentence.
We have taken action through the Victims and Prisoners Bill to curtail IPP licence periods to give offenders the opportunity to move on with their lives. Whether the ROA should be reviewed in the light of these changes would require further consideration in the context of indeterminate sentences generally.
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the reason for the decision to increase the length of the COP3 assessment of capacity form from 12 to 21 pages.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Court of Protection forms are a matter for the judiciary. The Court of Protection Rules Committee in 2022 convened an expert Working Group to review the COP3 assessment of capacity form, supported by my officials. That group recommended substantial revisions to both the format and content.
Revisions were made to reflect the outcome of a Supreme Court case (Local Authority v JB), and more broadly to improve the form’s evidential value. While longer than its predecessor, the revised form aims to provide for a more rigorous assessment of a person’s capacity and greater scrutiny of each specific decision to be made on their behalf. The Rules Committee approved those revisions, and the revised form was published in July 2023.