Briefing

One in three men have a criminal record by the age of 30, according to the IRS Employment Review (Law Bulletin Nov 1996;557:2-10). The majority committed one or two offences in adolescence, yet most face difficulty in obtaining employment for many years, a fact which the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act of 1974 was designed to address. It allows convictions to be “spent”- non-declarable in employment procedures-after a specified number of conviction free years. Doctors are among those specifically excluded from the act, and have a lifelong obligation to declare any convictions.