A new report published by Unlock, examines how today’s digital age has undermined the promise of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (ROA) and sets out reforms needed to protect the right to move on from a criminal record.
It explains how the ROA was designed for an analogue world in which criminal record information was accessed only through formal channels and with the individual’s knowledge and consent. Today, however, online news archives, search engines, social
media and rogue “naming and shaming” sites mean that criminal records – including spent convictions – can remain searchable indefinitely.
Recent policy developments heighten concern. The Sentencing Bill 2025 proposal to allow probation to publish names and photographs of people on community orders online formalises “naming and shaming” and risks creating yet another layer of digital permanence. Advances in AI, including facial recognition and automated data scraping, further threaten the effectiveness of traditional protections such as name changes.
In response, Unlock recommends a programme of digital rehabilitation reform, including:
· Modernising the ROA to include explicit digital rehabilitation provisions and a presumption of delisting once convictions are spent.
· Statutory guidance clarifying a consistent public interest test for retaining historic conviction data online.
· A specialised Digital Rehabilitation Tribunal for serious offences to review risk, rehabilitation and proportionality on a case-by-case basis.
· Strengthening ICO capacity and tools to act swiftly against vigilante sites and unlawful data processing.
· Clear regulatory standards for AI-generated or AI-processed criminal record data.
The report concludes that rehabilitation is not about erasing the past, but about recognising people’s capacity to change. Fifty years after the ROA, the internet has turned formal and legally protected second chances into a conditional privilege controlled by algorithms and tech platforms. Without urgent action, the UK’s promise of rehabilitation will remain, for many, a legal fiction rather than a lived reality. To read the full report, click here.