Frequently asked questions

There is no longer a limit on the number of personal uses. This follows the removal of the need to register to use the Calculator on a personal basis.

If you’re using the calculator on a personal basis (i.e. about your criminal record, or that of a family member/friend) then you do not have to set up an account.

If you wish to use the calculator as a professional or organisation as part of your work, you should set up a multiple-use account.

The calculator operates using the rehabilitation periods as they apply in England & Wales. Contacts for the law in other countries can be found here.

It might not always be as obvious as where you live when it comes to deciding which rules apply. See our detailed guidance on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act for more information.

This has been kept for use in a small number of cases where people might need to work out when their convictions became spent under the old law. For example, where there is an employment dispute and the person started the job before March 2014. However, it’s important to note that when your were convicted is irrelevant – the changes in March 2014 are ‘retrospective’, which mean they apply to people who were convicted before March 2014, so apart from in exceptional circumstances, you should use the current rules to work out when your convictions become spent. 

You should also have given been given a community order. You should enter the length of that order.

If a conviction was treated as spent before the 10th March, it stays spent and isn’t affected by the changes.

In a small number of cases, the changes made in March 2014 lengthened the rehabilitation period, particularly where individuals received multiple summary offences, and where individuals have received Detention and Training Orders.

In this situation, you should use the old version of the Calculator to work out any convictions that were dealt with before 10th March 2014. Anything that is spent before that point can be discounted. Anything that carries forward should be entered into the Calculator again, but this time using the new rules, to work out when they would become spent.