Amendments to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 2001

The Department of Home Affairs consulted with the public via the Consultation Hub between 12 August 2019 and 12 September 2019 on the proposed amendments, by Order, to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 2001.

The purpose of the Order was to minimise the disparity between the timelines for ‘spent’ convictions found in the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 2001 and those in the United Kingdom’s Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (an Act of Parliament).

One response was received via email and the respondent did not agree to their information being published however they agreed with the proposed amendments to the Act and also to the planned future amendments with relation to Cautions. 

The Department was grateful to the respondent and to any others who had an input into the drafting of the Order prior to consultation.

The Order was approved by Tynwald in October 2019 and became effective on 01 November 2019.

The Department intends to bring forward primary legislation providing both for the rehabilitation of sentences over 30 months, and that cautions may become ‘spent cautions’, and that these two matters will then be aligned with the relevant rehabilitation periods found within the UK Act. These provisions are contained within a Bill scheduled to be introduced into the legislative branches in the first half of 2020.