The act makes it an offence to obtain access to criminal records by means of fraud, dishonesty or bribery.

[2] Certain professions and employments are exempt from the act so that individuals are not allowed to withhold details of previous convictions in relation to their job when applying for positions in similar fields.

For instance, notable cases include Gary Bell, a former fraudster turned high-profile successful barrister and Queen's Counsel;[5] and Selwyn Strachan, who was convicted of murder in Grenada and served a sentence of 40 years.

It is also unlawful for an organisation to knowingly carry out (or enable someone else to obtain) a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check on a person for a role which is covered by the act.

[8] There are also a number of proceedings before a "judicial authority" (widely defined) that are excluded from the act, and where spent convictions can be disclosed.

However, the Lord Chief Justice and the Home Office has advised the courts that spent convictions should not be mentioned except in very special circumstances.

By virtue of section 7(2)(a) of the 1974 act rehabilitated or spent convictions are admissible in criminal proceedings where they are relevant to "the determination of any issue".

This provision in the Criminal Justice Act 2003 is also in tension with its "limited retributivism" theory of punishment, which underpins the sentencing framework in England and Wales.

Applicants to university courses are only required to declare their relevant criminal convictions, cautions and verbal bind overs on their UCAS forms.

More recently, the question concerning criminal convictions is no longer mandatory on UCAS forms and will not generate a hold.

The changes were made "to finally tackle our stubbornly high reoffending rates that currently see almost half of all prisoners commit further crime within a year of release".