HL Deb 02 December 1980 vol 415 cc382-3WA
Lord Avebury

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether a person who applies for naturalisation or registration as a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies is obliged to reveal to the interviewing officers any convictions which are spent under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act or which would have been so spent if the conviction, which was in respect of an offence committed overseas, had been dealt with in an English court.

Lord Belstead

A leaflet enclosed with all application forms for citizenship makes it clear that convictions which are spent under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (which applies to convictions abroad for offences which would also be offences here) need not be included when completing those forms. Nor is there any obligation to reveal such convictions subsequently to interviewing officers.