Comment on the recent High Court ruling on the ‘Right to be Forgotten’ and spent convictions case from Unlock, a national charity for people with conviction. Contributor Christopher Stacey, Co-director – Unlock.
The judgment from the High Court represents a key victory for people with a criminal record. More and more in recent years, people with spent criminal convictions have found their past mistakes have continued to haunt them because employers, insurers and members of the public have been able to use internet search engines such as Google to get to old media reports relating to their now spent record.
The purpose of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 is to protect people from stigma and discrimination once their conviction becomes spent, with the convictions then only lawfully subject to disclosure in accordance with strict rules in relation to specific roles, such as working with children.
Internet search engines play a key role here because they control what results will be returned when a person’s name is searched, and it is open to them to delete or “de-index” links which are old and out of date. However, we have seen a significant number of instances of internet search engines refusing such requests, and the Information Commissioner’s Office then rejecting an appeal from the affected person.
The High Court’s judgment means that internet search engines such as Google will need to review their approach so as to ensure that sufficient weight is attached to the fact a conviction is spent.”
