A December 2025 briefing from the charity Unlock examines how the digital age is challenging the principles of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (ROA). The report, entitled “The Right to be Forgotten,” details how individuals with criminal records face ongoing obstacles to reintegration due to easily accessible online information.
The Changing Landscape of Rehabilitation
The ROA was originally designed for a time when accessing criminal record information required formal requests and individual consent. Today, employers, educators, and others can readily find information through online news archives, search engines, social media, and unofficial “naming and shaming” websites. This means that even spent convictions can remain publicly searchable indefinitely.
DBS Checks and Online Searches
While the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) provides a framework for safeguarding and balancing it with rehabilitation, the report finds that this system is undermined by the ease with which individuals can conduct their own online searches. These searches, often conducted via search engines, social media, and AI tools, frequently lack a legal basis and can lead to unlawful data processing and discrimination.
Unequal Impacts
The harms of this digital permanence are not evenly distributed. The briefing highlights that individuals with non-anglicised names are more easily searchable, potentially exacerbating racial discrimination in hiring. Women are also disproportionately affected, facing greater risk of sensationalist media coverage and potential tracking by abusive ex-partners. Families may also experience stigma and bullying related to a parent’s digital footprint.
Legal and Technological Challenges
Removing inaccurate information from the digital space is often difficult, and the situation is expected to worsen. A proposal within the current Sentencing Bill (Clause 35) could allow probation services to publish the names and photographs of individuals on community orders, further solidifying a permanent digital record. Furthermore, advances in AI, including facial recognition and data scraping, pose new threats to traditional protections like name changes.
Recommendations for Reform
Unlock proposes seven recommendations for digital rehabilitation reform, including modernizing the ROA to explicitly address digital rehabilitation, establishing a clear public interest test for retaining online conviction data, and creating a Digital Rehabilitation Tribunal to review cases on an individual basis. Other recommendations include strengthening the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and promoting public awareness of available remedies.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act?
The ROA was designed to allow people with criminal convictions to move on with their lives after a specified period, with their convictions considered “spent.”
How does the digital age undermine the ROA?
Online information sources make it easy for employers and others to discover criminal records – even spent convictions – bypassing the safeguards of the ROA and the DBS system.
What is being proposed in the Sentencing Bill?
Clause 35 of the Sentencing Bill proposes allowing probation services to publish the names and photographs of people on community orders online.
As technology continues to evolve, how might the balance between public safety, individual privacy, and the opportunity for rehabilitation shift in the years to come?
