HMOWTR3130 - Grounds for Deregistration/Refusal: What is a spent conviction?

To help those with lesser offences, the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 enables criminal convictions to become spent or ignored after a specific period of time. Prison sentences exceeding 2.5 years (30 months) never become spent convictions. We are legally barred from including a spent conviction as reason for refusal of a WOWGR registration. The various periods, where a conviction can be considered ‘spent’, are listed below:

Sentence	Rehabilitation period for people aged 17 or under when convicted	Rehabilitation period for people aged 18 or over when convicted
Prison sentences of 6 months or less	3.5 years	7 years
Prison sentences of 6 months to 2.5 years	5 years	10 years
Borstal	7 years	7 years
Fines, compensation, probation, community service, combination, action plan, drug treatment and testing and preparation orders	2.5 years	5 years
Absolute discharge	6 months	6 months