I have been convicted of driving with excess alcohol – do I have to declare this?
An individual convicted of a criminal offence may be required to disclose their criminal convictions, for instance when applying for a new job or a travel visa. Such an individual is required to declare a criminal record, when asked, for a period of five years. After this period the criminal record will be spent and there is no longer an obligation to declare.
For the offence of driving with excess alcohol contrary to 16 (1) (a) of the Road Traffic (Northern Ireland) Order 1995, the “rehabilitation period” is 5 years as prescribed by Article 6 Table A of the Rehabilitation of Offenders (Northern Ireland) Order 1978. The effect of the rehabilitation period is that after 5 years the conviction is considered “spent” in the eyes of the law.
The Rehabilitation of Offenders (Northern Ireland) Order 1978 paragraph (3)(1) states that,
“Subject to paragraph (2), where an individual has been convicted, whether before or after the commencement of this Article, of any offence or offences, and the following conditions are satisfied (...) then, after the end of the rehabilitation period so applicable (...) that individual shall for the purposes of this Order be treated as a rehabilitated person in respect of the first-mentioned conviction and that conviction shall for those purposes be treated as spent.”
This means that once the rehabilitation period expires, all unspent convictions will appear on any kind of Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check. Spent convictions will not appear on a Basic CRB check, but they will appear on a Standard or Enhanced CRB, which will be requested for certain jobs including those working with children, young adults, vulnerable people and working in administration of the law and other sensitive areas.
If someone who has been convicted is already in employment, under the terms and conditions of an individual’s employment contract, the employer may have included a disclosure clause in respect of any criminal convictions that the individual obtains while in their employ. This can be checked by reading the contract of employment in order to see whether failure to disclose a conviction would constitute a breach of contract. Perhaps it would be advisable to remind any representative of the employer who is holding such information is bound to comply with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 which applies to all personal information held about individuals.