How long a criminal record lasts and what changes once a conviction is spent
SaveHow long a criminal record lasts depends less on the offence than on the sentence a court imposed. Under the framework that governs spent convictions in England and Wales, every disposal carries a rehabilitation period, and when that period ends the conviction becomes spent. This guide from HS Criminal Law sets out how those periods are fixed, which convictions never clear, and what a spent conviction still lets others ask about. You will finish knowing where your own record stands and what you can do about it.
What a criminal record holds
A criminal record is not one document. The police keep a record of arrests, charges, cautions and convictions, and courts, employers and the Disclosure and Barring Service draw on different parts of it for different reasons.
That matters because a caution is not a conviction, yet it still carries a rehabilitation period of its own. Anyone who assumes a caution vanishes on the spot is working from the wrong starting point.
The reliable way to see what the police hold about you is a subject access request to the force that dealt with the case.
The statutory framework for spent convictions
The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act sets the rules. It gives each conviction a rehabilitation period, and once that period runs out the conviction is spent: for everyday purposes it is treated as though it no longer exists.
How a rehabilitation period starts
The period runs from the date of conviction. Where the court made an order that lasts a set time, it is measured from the end of that order instead, which makes the length of the order part of the calculation.
Why the sentence matters more than the offence
Two people convicted of the same offence can end up with very different periods, because the framework looks at the sentence handed down rather than the name of the charge. A fine, a community order and a prison sentence sit in separate categories with separate consequences for the record.
Within custody it is the length of the sentence that decides the category, and a suspended sentence is treated as a custodial sentence rather than a soft option. Our explanation of how a suspended sentence is structured covers what that means in the months that follow.
What fixes the length of a rehabilitation period
Four factors move a rehabilitation period up or down.
- The type of disposal, from a discharge at one end to a prison sentence at the other.
- The length of any custodial sentence, which decides the category it falls into.
- Your age at conviction, because the framework gives shorter periods to those sentenced as children or young people.
- Whether an order is still running, since some periods start only when the order ends.
This is not a sliding scale you can estimate by instinct. Each disposal belongs to a category the framework defines, and one category can sit a long way from the next.
Convictions the framework never clears
Some convictions never become spent, however much time passes. The main group is custodial sentences above the length the framework allows for a spent conviction, and certain orders made to protect the public sit alongside them.
A spent conviction is not a deleted conviction. It changes what you have to tell people, not what the police hold.
For anyone unsure which side of that line their case falls on, the sentence on the court record is the deciding detail. The name of the offence is not.
What a spent conviction changes in practice
Once a conviction is spent you are not obliged to declare it to an employer, an insurer or a landlord, and a spent conviction you had no duty to reveal cannot later be used as the reason to refuse you work, cover or a tenancy.
Two limits are worth knowing. A spent conviction stays visible to the police and can be raised in later criminal proceedings, and a conviction still inside its period is held back if you are convicted again, so it cannot become spent before the newer one does.
Short orders behave differently from fines and custody. A conditional discharge is spent once the order ends, and our piece on a conditional discharge and what it means for your record follows the detail.
Where disclosure is still required
The exceptions are narrow but they matter. Roles exempt from the framework can ask about spent convictions and are entitled to a straight answer: work with children or vulnerable adults, some regulated professions, and judicial appointments among them.
Answering those questions dishonestly carries its own risk, because withholding a conviction you were asked about directly can be an offence in itself. A blank box is rarely the safer choice.
Checks that reach further than a basic disclosure
A basic check shows unspent convictions only. Standard and enhanced checks reach further, and the filtering rules strip some old and minor entries out of what is disclosed. Our guide to how the DBS check process works covers what each level can and cannot show.
| Check | What it can include | Where it is used |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | Unspent convictions | Employers in roles the framework covers |
| Standard | Unspent convictions, plus spent ones that are not filtered out | Roles listed as exempt, such as some licensed work |
| Enhanced | The same, plus information held by local police | Work with children or vulnerable adults |
Court is the other setting where spent convictions surface. A judge can hear about them when sentencing, and they can be admitted as evidence of bad character in limited circumstances.
Misconceptions that outlive the conviction
Some beliefs about records are worth correcting before they cost you a job offer.
The first is that a record disappears after a fixed number of years. Periods differ by disposal, so a single cut-off date does not exist for everyone.
The second is that a spent conviction can be answered with "no" on any form you are handed. On a form from an exempt employer asking about every conviction, "no" would be false.
The third is that an arrest is the same as a conviction. An arrest that led nowhere is not a conviction, though it can still sit on a police record.
Checking your own record step by step
Start with what is actually held, because a record is rarely identical to what the person named in it remembers.
- Send a subject access request to the police force that dealt with the case.
- Put what comes back beside the court paperwork and check the sentence against the offence.
- Work out the rehabilitation period for each disposal, counting from the date of conviction or the end of any order.
- Raise anything wrong through the force's record correction process before an employer sees it.
A short list for this week
None of this needs a solicitor's letter to begin, and a few minutes with the paperwork settles the shape of it.
- Find the court paperwork and keep a copy where you can reach it.
- Write down the date of conviction and the sentence in your own notes.
- Read the convictions question on any application form before you fill it in.
- Ask which level of check a job you are applying for requires.
A conviction's reach is set by the sentence, then by the period that sentence attracts, then by the disclosure rules attached to the role you want. That chain is manageable once you can see it.
This article is general information about the law in England and Wales, not legal advice on an individual case.
#Spent conviction #Rehabilitation period #Conviction #Disclosure
Download PDF: Criminal record checklist: working out where you stand PDF, 29 KB
Further reading
Frequently asked questions
How do I know when my conviction became spent?
Find the sentence on the court record, match it to the category it falls into, then count the rehabilitation period from the date of conviction or from the end of any order the court made. Where the sentence was a long custodial one, the conviction never becomes spent at all.
What can an employer ask about a spent conviction?
In an ordinary role, a spent conviction no longer counts and you do not have to declare it. A role exempt from the framework is different, because there the question can cover every conviction and the answer has to be honest.
Do convictions ever disappear from a police record?
They do not. A spent conviction still sits on the police record and can be raised in later criminal proceedings; what changes is your duty to disclose it. Filtering, which removes some old and minor entries from standard and enhanced checks, is a separate process.