The following information is extracted from a Home Office document entitled BREAKING THE CIRCLE.

PLEASE NOTE: THESE ARE RECOMMENDATIONS ONLY.

Government recommendations for the reform of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

Certain types of posts, professions and licensing bodies should continue to be excepted from the disclosure scheme.

A new judicial discretion should be introduced to disapply the normal disclosure periods in cases where the sentencer decides there is a particular risk of significant harm.

Clear guidance to offenders should be made available through the statutory agencies, and other organisations involved with the rehabilitation and resettlement of offenders.

A voluntary Code of Practice should be developed for employers to govern the use of disclosures in the recruitment process.

As at present there should be sanctions available if an applicant or existing employee loses the job on the grounds of a previous conviction that they were not required to disclose.

The disclosure scheme should be based on fixed disclosure periods.

The fixed periods should be based on sentence, with different periods applied to custodial and non-custodial sentences.

The disclosure periods should comprise the length of the sentence plus an additional ‘buffer’ period.

The buffer period to be applied in the case of adult offenders should be one year (following a non-custodial sentence); two years (following a custodial sentence of less than 4 years); and four years (following a custodial sentence of 4 years or more).

Separate disclosure periods should be set for young offenders. In these cases there will be no buffer period added to the period of the order for non-custodial sentences but there will be a buffer period of one year (for custodial sentences of less than 24 months) and two years (following a custodial sentence for 24 months or more).

The scheme should apply to all ex-offenders who have served their sentences.

The new arrangements should be applied retrospectively to bring this group within the protection of the scheme without delay.

The disclosure scheme should be devised specifically to assist the employment process, with civil and criminal courts excepted from the scheme.