Key statutory concepts are defined and cross‑referenced in the Act and are central to how the scheme operates.

• Spent conviction: defined in s 3(1) to include convictions spent under ss 6, 7 or 8 or by a spent conviction order under s 39 of the Sentencing Act 1995. Once a conviction becomes spent, Part 3 governs its legal effect (s 12, s 25).

• Serious conviction: defined in s 9 as a conviction where the sentence is imprisonment for more than one year or indeterminate, or a fine of $15 000 or more. Serious convictions are not spent automatically; a person must apply to a District Court judge (s 6(1)).

• Lesser conviction: defined in s 10(1) as any conviction that is not a s 9 sentence or life imprisonment; lesser convictions become spent by administrative certificate from the Commissioner of Police if the prescribed period has elapsed (s 7(1)). If a person with an existing lesser conviction later incurs a s 9 sentence, that earlier lesser conviction becomes a serious conviction for Act purposes (s 10(2)).

• Prescribed period: set out in s 11. The general rule is 10 years, or where subsection (6) applies it is 3 years, plus any period of imprisonment "relevant to that conviction", with special rules for indeterminate sentences, cumulative sentences and for cannabis offences prescribed by reference to the Misuse of Drugs Act 1981 and the Cannabis Law Reform Act 2010 (s 11(1)-(6)). The period may be materially lengthened by adding the imposed term of imprisonment (s 11(3), (4)).

• Application procedures and evidentiary regime: Schedule 1 sets out procedural rules for s 6 applications. The applicant must file a written application disclosing prior convictions and employment history (cl 1(1)), the Commissioner of Police is a party (cl 2(1)), hearings may be private (cl 3), rules of evidence do not bind the judge (cl 4), and the judge has civil‑jurisdiction powers and discretion (cls 5-7). Costs are generally borne by parties but the judge may award costs in particular circumstances (cl 8).

• Part 3’s effects and exceptions: Part 3 neutralises the legal force of spent convictions for most written laws (s 25), for good‑character assessments (s 26), and for disclosure obligations (s 27). It creates a specific offence of obtaining information about a spent conviction from official criminal records without lawful reason (s 28), subject to prescribed exceptions (s 28(2)). Division 3 makes it unlawful for employers, principals, employment agencies and other bodies to discriminate against people on the ground of spent convictions in employment and associated arrangements (ss 18-23), with enforcement channelled through the Equal Opportunity Act 1984 (s 24).

• Exceptions and regulation: Division 2 and Schedule 3 carve out extensive exceptions for particular roles, agencies and circumstances, notably roles involving children, people with disability, certain security and custodial positions, and legal profession admissions. Regulations can add or amend those exceptions (s 16(1), s 33(1)).

The above definitions, timing rules and exceptions are the mechanical bones of the rehabilitation regime. They allocate decision rights (District Court judge for serious convictions, Commissioner of Police for lesser convictions), set temporal gating conditions (s 11), and delineate the statutory reach and limits of rehabilitation (Part 3 and Schedule 3).

The Act’s scope is broad and targets multiple actors; the identity of who benefits and who retains decision rights is explicit in the text.

Primary individual beneficiaries

• Natural persons who have been convicted of an offence in Western Australia or a foreign jurisdiction, provided the conviction falls within the statutory definitions and the prescribed period has elapsed (s 3(1), s 11, s 8).

Decision makers

• District Court judges make spent-conviction orders for serious convictions at judicial discretion (s 6(1), s 6(4)), within the procedural framework of Schedule 1.
• The Commissioner of Police issues certificates for lesser convictions and has no discretion to refuse a compliant application (s 7(1), (3)) and must provide prescribed notice when issuing the certificate (s 7(4); s 33(2)).

Employers and principals

• The Act makes it unlawful for employers, principals, employment agencies, commissions agents and organisations to discriminate against people on the ground of spent convictions in recruitment, terms of employment, dismissal, engagement and related arrangements (ss 18-23). However, Schedule 3 lists many employers, classes of employment and authorities that are excepted from Part 3 or particular sections (Schedule 3 cl 1 et seq). The exceptions encompass public sector roles, regulated security and custodial roles, education and child‑facing roles, health workers, disability services and legal profession admissions.

Regulators and authorities

• Authorities that confer licences, permits or authorisations are regulated by s 22, but the Schedule contains specific carve‑outs for many licensing contexts that permit consideration of spent convictions (Schedule 3 tables). Section 16 enables further tailoring by regulation.

Police and record holders

• Police forces, courts and public authorities maintain official criminal records; s 28(1) makes it an offence to obtain spent conviction information from an official criminal record without lawful reason. Subsection (2) lists that prescribed persons may still obtain such information when required or permitted by prescribed law, for example in working with children or NDIS worker screening contexts, as elaborated in Schedule 3 (cl 2 and 3).

Equality and complaints bodies

• Enforcement of the non‑discrimination provisions is channelled through the Equal Opportunity Act 1984 complaint process (s 24(1)), with the Minister and Commissioner under that Act given specified powers and functions for spent-conviction discrimination matters (s 29).

Third parties and private actors

• The Act affects private parties who rely on criminal-history disclosures or checks. Written laws requiring disclosure do not require disclosure of spent convictions (s 25(2), s 27), but Schedule 3 identifies many circumstances where disclosure or consideration of spent convictions remains permissible.

Interjurisdictional actors

• Schedule 2 recognises convictions in certain other jurisdictions as spent where those jurisdictions’ rehabilitation laws render them spent (for example Queensland, New South Wales and Commonwealth/Norfolk Island provisions), and s 8 permits regulations to amend Schedule 2.

In short, the Act directly alters the legal status of convictions for individual offenders and reshapes the legal duties of employers, licensing authorities, record holders and screening agencies, while preserving a set of public‑protection exceptions for specific occupational and regulatory contexts.

Who must do what and what rights are created or withdrawn is carefully allocated across the Act.

Rights of convicted persons

• The right to have a conviction treated as "spent" arises when statutory conditions are met. For lesser convictions the right is an administrative entitlement: after the prescribed period the person may apply in prescribed form to the Commissioner of Police and the Commissioner must issue a certificate if the application complies (s 7(1)-(3)). For serious convictions the right is discretionary: a person may apply to a District Court judge after the prescribed period, but the judge may or may not make an order after considering statutory factors (s 6(1)-(4); Schedule 1).

Procedural duties for applicants

• Applicants for a s 6 order must comply with the content requirements of Schedule 1 cl 1(1) by disclosing all previous convictions and employment history and any other prescribed matters. A judge may request further information (cl 1(2)). Where the judge makes an order, copies must be provided to the applicant and the Commissioner of Police and the applicant must receive a prescribed form of notice (cl 9; s 7(4); s 33(2)).

Duties of the Commissioner of Police

• The Commissioner is a named party to s 6 applications (Schedule 1 cl 2(1)) and must issue certificates for lesser convictions if statutory requirements are met, lacking any discretion to refuse (s 7(3)). The Commissioner must also receive a copy of any District Court order (Schedule 1 cl 9(b)). The Commissioner can appear and make submissions at hearings (cl 2(1)(b)-(c)).

Judicial duties and discretion

• A District Court judge has discretion to grant or refuse a s 6 order. The judge must exercise that discretion having regard to enumerated factors, including sentence length and kind, time since conviction, whether the conviction prevents professional engagement, applicant circumstances at offence and application time, nature and seriousness of the offence, surrounding circumstances, and public interest (s 6(4)). The judge may conduct a private hearing (Schedule 1 cl 3), is not bound by rules of evidence (cl 4), and may refuse to hold a hearing in cases found vexatious or lacking substance (cl 7).

Employer and principal duties

• Employers, principals and related organisations are prohibited from discriminating on the ground of a spent conviction in recruitment, terms of employment, dismissal, denial of opportunities and similar actions (ss 18-23). Those prohibitions are subject to the extensive exceptions in Schedule 3 and any regulations made under s 16(1).

Obligations on authorities conferring authorisations

• Authorities empowered to grant, renew, extend, revoke or withdraw authorisations that facilitate practice of a profession or occupation must not discriminate on the ground of a spent conviction (s 22). Again, the Schedule contains specified exceptions for many licensing contexts.

Record‑keeper duties and access limits

• People and bodies must not obtain information about a spent conviction from an "official criminal record" without lawful reason (s 28(1)), subject to prescribed exceptions for particular screening or regulatory regimes (s 28(2) and Schedule 3 cl 2 and 3).

Enforcement rights and limits

• Enforcement of the discrimination provisions is through complaint mechanisms under the Equal Opportunity Act 1984 (s 24(1)); the Act expressly limits sanctions to that mechanism and does not create additional criminal or civil penalties for Division 3 contraventions (s 24(2)). A contravention remains actionable for defamation purposes (s 24(3)).

Regulatory powers

• The Governor may make regulations necessary to give effect to the Act, including prescribing forms of notice and amending Schedule 2 or inserting Schedules creating exceptions (s 33(1)-(2), s 16(1)). Those regulation powers create administrative flexibility to adjust the interactions with other statutes and screening regimes.

Collectively, these duties and rights create a legal entitlement to rehabilitation under time and procedural conditions, assign decision rights (judicial or executive), constrain employers and authorities in many contexts, and reserve specific access and assessment privileges for prescribed public‑protection roles.

The Act uses a mixed enforcement palette of administrative obligations, civil complaint remedies and a narrow criminal offence.

Criminal penalty

• Section 28(1) creates a specific offence: a person shall not, without lawful reason, obtain information about a spent conviction or the related charge from an "official criminal record". The penalty is $1 000. The statute supplies definitions for "child" and "official criminal record" in s 28(1A).

Enforcement of non‑discrimination provisions

• The Act does not create standalone criminal or civil sanctions for breaches of the Division 3 discrimination provisions. Instead, enforcement is routed to the Equal Opportunity Act 1984 complaint process. Section 24(1) permits alleged contraventions of Division 3 to be lodged as a complaint under s 83(1) or (2) of the Equal Opportunity Act, "as if the alleged contravention were a contravention of that Act", and that Act's procedures apply. Section 24(2) expressly states that a contravention of Division 3 "shall not attract any sanction or consequence, whether criminal or civil, except as provided in subsection (1)", thereby limiting direct remedies under the Spent Convictions Act itself to the Equal Opportunity Act machinery.

Other remedies

• Section 24(3) preserves the availability of defamation actions where appropriate. Section 26(2) states that failure to comply with s 26(1) (not having regard to a spent conviction when assessing character under written law) is not an offence but does not affect other remedies that may be invoked. That leaves open non‑criminal legal responses such as judicial review or proceedings under statutory schemes where a public authority fails to apply the Act correctly, subject to the written law under which the authority acts and any Schedule 3 exceptions.

Judicial controls on process and costs

• Schedule 1 cl 8 sets the default costs position for s 6 applications: each party bears their own costs except in specified circumstances where the judge may award costs. Costs awarded may be registered as judgment debts. That shapes the financial risk for applicants and interveners such as the Commissioner and Attorney General.

Regulatory enforcement and exceptions

• The Secretary of a prescribed screening or regulatory law can be excepted from s 28(1) when making lawful disclosures under specified Commonwealth or State laws (s 28(2); Schedule 3 cl 2 and cl 3). The Act anticipates and defers to interlocking statutory screening regimes for children and disability services.

Practical enforcement implication

• The statutory framework centralises practical enforcement of discrimination through an existing specialised tribunal and complaint process rather than through private civil claims or criminal sanctions under the Spent Convictions Act. It creates a narrow criminal prohibition on access to official criminal records for spent‑conviction information, but subject to numerous and prescribed exceptions which are themselves expanded in Schedule 3.

The Act is drafted to operate in a statutory ecosystem and expressly addresses conflicts and cooperation with other statutes.

Notwithstanding clause and primacy

• Section 13 provides that Part 3 has effect "notwithstanding any other written law". That gives Part 3 primacy over other written laws in Western Australia, subject to the detailed exceptions the Act itself contains and to the power to create further exceptions by regulation (s 16(1)). In practice this means that a statutory requirement elsewhere to count or require disclosure of a "conviction" will not be interpreted to include a spent conviction, unless an exception applies under Schedule 3 or regulations (s 25(1), s 25(2)).

Specified judicial and policing exceptions

• Division 2 provides explicit carve‑outs. Section 14(1)(a) preserves the procedure and admissible evidence in proceedings of courts and tribunals that apply the laws of evidence or proceedings under s 6; s 14(2)(a)-(b) clarifies that certain provisions of Division 4 (ss 25(2), 26(1) and 27) do not apply to proceedings referred to in s 14(1)(a) or to s 6 proceedings. Section 15 states that ss 25(1) and (2), 26(1) and 27 do not apply for bail decisions. These provisions leave criminal and sentencing processes able to use conviction history where legally necessary.

Interlocking screening and regulatory regimes

• The Act expressly accommodates national and State screening regimes. Schedule 3 contains exceptions for the Working with Children (Screening) Act 2004, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (Worker Screening) Act 2020, NDIS‑related disclosure, and related laws. Section 28(2) allows a prescribed person to obtain spent-conviction information if required or permitted under a prescribed law of the Commonwealth, another State or Territory, where the purpose is to obtain or deal with the information in accordance with that prescribed law. That mechanism intentionally aligns the Act with specialised protective screening systems.

Reciprocity with other jurisdictions

• Schedule 2 recognises certain convictions from Queensland, New South Wales and Commonwealth/Norfolk Island as spent where they are spent under those jurisdictions' rehabilitation laws (s 8(1)). Section 8(2) permits regulations to amend Schedule 2, providing a regulatory pathway for interjurisdictional alignment.

Interaction with licensing and professional regulation

• Section 22 prohibits discrimination by authorities that grant authorisations and qualifications, yet Schedule 3 lists many licensing and professional contexts (for example, legal profession admissions, teacher registration, health practitioner roles) where exceptions apply. For example, Schedule 3 subclause (12) provides exceptions for applicants to the Legal Profession Uniform Law (WA) and the Legal Practice Board (cl 12 and 13). The Act therefore requires readers to consult both the general nondiscrimination rule and the detailed Schedule to understand the duty in a specific regulatory setting.

Regulation‑making power to refine interactions

• Sections 16 and 33 permit the Governor to make regulations that insert or amend Schedules creating exceptions, and s 33(2) requires a prescribed form of notice to be set by regulation for certifying that a conviction is spent. That regulatory power is the statutory instrument for adjusting the Act's interface with other laws and schemes without amending the primary Act.

The net effect is that the Act asserts a broad rehabilitation rule that overrides other statutes except where the legislature or the Act itself has identified reasons to preserve access for specified public‑protection or regulatory purposes. Practitioners must consult Schedule 3, the regulations and the other enabling statutes for precise application in particular occupational or screening contexts.

The compilation table and marginal notes in the Act document a long series of amendments and regulatory changes since enactment.

Initial enactment and commencement

• The Spent Convictions Act 1988 (No. 55 of 1988) was assented to 8 December 1988. Sections 1 and 2 commenced on 8 December 1988; the rest of the Act commenced 1 July 1992 (compilation table).

Early amendments and regulations

• A Spent Convictions Amendment Act 1989 (No. 24 of 1989) and the Spent Convictions Regulations 1992 followed. The 1992 regulations commenced 1 July 1992 and have been updated repeatedly.

Subsequent statute-driven adjustments

• The Act has been amended across many regimes reflecting administrative and policy changes. The compilation table records inter alia amendments resulting from the Young Offenders Act 1994 (No. 104 of 1994), Sentencing and Sentencing Consequential Acts in the mid‑1990s (No. 78 of 1995), and multiple later statutes affecting policing, prisons, education, health, the legal profession, working with children and NDIS screening.

Notable modern amendments listed

• The Cannabis Law Reform Act 2010 altered the prescribed period for certain cannabis offences (s 11(6)); amendments in 2010 and 2011 materially changed the timing rules. The Working with Children (Criminal Record Checking) Amendment Act 2010 and later Working with Children (Criminal Record Checking) Amendment Act 2022 are recorded as affecting the interaction of the Act with child‑screening laws; the National Disability Insurance Scheme (Worker Screening) Act 2020 amendments are recorded in 2020‑2021 entries. The Legal Profession Uniform Law Application Act 2022 resulted in Schedule 3 adjustments for legal practice admissions (compilation table entries for 2022). The Corruption, Crime and Misconduct Amendment Act 2024 and Firearms Act 2024 are recorded with later commencement dates.

Regulatory updates

• The Act has been the subject of numerous Statutory Instrument amendments: Spent Convictions (Act Amendment) Regulations across 1998-2015 and more recent Spent Convictions (Act Amendment) Regulations 2023 and 2024 (SL 2023/121; SL 2024/153; SL 2024/290), with some regulation provisions staged for later commencement (compilation table).

Uncommenced provisions and linkage to other Acts

• The compilation table lists interdependencies and uncommenced provisions in other Acts which affect the Spent Convictions Act’s interaction with those regimes. The Firearms Act 2024 amendments to Schedule 3 have a noted commencement of 31 March 2025. The compilation table documents many commencement dates, showing the legislative evolution of exceptions and operation.

Overall, the statutory record shows iterative legislative adjustment to incorporate modern screening systems, child‑protection laws, national worker‑screening frameworks and profession‑specific regulatory structures. Users must consult current reprints and the regulations to capture the present‑day configuration of Schedule 3 exceptions and prescribed forms or procedures.

The Act’s text and compilation do not list judicial decisions. The statute directs dispute resolution and enforcement into specified channels rather than creating a standalone private cause of action within the Act.

Procedural forum and review pathways

• Applications for serious‑conviction orders are made to a District Court judge under s 6 and Schedule 1. Schedule 1 sets the procedural architecture for those applications, including private hearings, the ability for the Commissioner of Police and Attorney General to appear, and that the judge is not bound by rules of evidence (cl 3, cl 4, cl 2). The Schedule gives the judge civil jurisdiction powers to determine the application (cl 5).

Enforcement and complaint forum

• Alleged discrimination under Division 3 is enforced via the Equal Opportunity Act 1984 complaint mechanism (s 24(1)); hence any litigation or adjudication in respect of discrimination on the ground of a spent conviction will proceed through the Equal Opportunity Act channels and associated tribunals or courts as that Act prescribes.

Absence of Act‑specific civil remedies

• Section 24(2) makes plain that the Act does not attach civil or criminal sanctions to Division 3 contraventions beyond the Equal Opportunity Act complaint mechanism. That structural choice channels disputes to specialised bodies rather than creating an independent set of statutory causes of action.

Implications for case law

• Because the Act assigns primary contested questions to either the District Court (s 6 applications) or the Equal Opportunity Act processes (discrimination complaints), relevant litigation that interprets or develops the law on the treatment of spent convictions will appear in those fora rather than as direct actions under the Spent Convictions Act. Users wanting to survey jurisprudence will therefore need to search District Court decisions on s 6 applications and decisions under the Equal Opportunity Act that invoke the Spent Convictions Act.

The source text contains no cases or reported decisions. Any litigation history must therefore be constructed from decisions under the District Court procedures for s 6 applications and under the Equal Opportunity Act complaint process; those materials are not reproduced in the Act itself.

There are numerous traps for practitioners and affected parties that arise directly from the Act’s structure and detailed Schedules.

Timing and the prescribed period

• The prescribed period is not a simple "X years from conviction" in most cases. Section 11 adds any period of imprisonment to the prescribed period and treats indeterminate sentences differently: for indeterminate sentences the 10‑year clock commences on the date of discharge (s 11(2)-(3)). Where a new conviction occurs before earlier convictions become spent, s 11(4) rewrites the clock: the prescribed periods for all relevant prior convictions are disregarded and replaced by the longest prescribed period commencing from the latest conviction, which can substantially prolong the time before any become spent. Practitioners must calculate the prescribed period in accordance with s 11, not by informal rules of thumb.

Serious versus lesser classification consequences

• The distinction in ss 9-10 is operationally decisive. A conviction that becomes a "serious conviction" requires a District Court application (s 6) and is subject to judicial discretion and public‑interest balancing (s 6(4)). Lesser convictions are administratively certificated by the Commissioner with no Commissioner discretion once statutory criteria are met (s 7(3)). Additionally, if a person with a lesser conviction later receives a sentence within s 9, the earlier lesser conviction becomes serious for purposes of the Act (s 10(2)).

Judicial discretion and procedural risks

• For s 6 applications, judges have broad discretion guided by statutory factors (s 6(4)) and Schedule 1 allows refusal without a hearing in cases deemed vexatious or lacking substance (cl 7(1)(a)). Applicants face risks of refusal and a two‑year bar on re‑application where a judge has refused to make an order in respect of the same conviction within the preceding two years (s 6(2)(b)). Costs risk is limited but not eliminated: cl 8(2) authorises costs awards in particular circumstances.

Extensive and detailed exceptions

• Schedule 3 contains a dense matrix of exceptions that may permit employers, licensing authorities and screening bodies to consider spent convictions for many specified posts and functions. The scope and reach of those exceptions are broad and nuanced; one must examine Schedule 3 and the current regulations closely rather than relying on a generic non‑discrimination understanding.

Narrow criminal enforcement provision

• Section 28 criminalises improper access to official records for spent‑conviction information, but the penalty is limited ($1 000). Schedule 3 and s 28(2) list numerous exceptions for screening regimes and prescribed persons. A seemingly small penalty can coexist with practical consequences where statutory reporting obligations exist under other Acts.

Overlap with other screening regimes

• The Act deliberately dovetails with specialised screening laws, including Working with Children and NDIS worker screening, but these regimes have separate disclosure powers and exceptions that can supersede the general rehabilitation protection. For child‑facing or disability services roles Schedule 3 identifies additional exceptions to ss 27 and 28. Practitioners must cross‑check those Acts for obligations that remain despite a conviction being spent under this Act.

Form and notice requirements and regulations

• The Commissioner must give the applicant a notice in the form referred to in s 33(2) when issuing a certificate (s 7(4)). That form and other procedural details are set by regulation. Failure to follow prescribed form or process can create administrative invalidity risk. Likewise, Schedule 2 interjurisdictional recognition is adjustable by regulation (s 8(2)).

Part 3’s overriding language is qualified

• Section 13 says Part 3 applies notwithstanding any written law, but the Act itself contains many carved exceptions and empowers regulations to add further ones. The practical operation of Part 3 depends heavily on Schedule 3 and the regulations, so a literal reading of the "notwithstanding" clause without consulting the Schedules may mislead.

In short, timing calculations, the serious/lesser split, the pervasive Schedule 3 exceptions, and interaction with specialised screening laws are the principal operational gotchas. Each application context requires a targeted statutory check.

Practical compliance paths differ depending on whether you are an individual applicant, an employer, a record holder, or a regulatory authority. The steps below follow the Act’s procedural map and cite the controlling provisions.

For individuals seeking spent status

1. Classify the conviction: Determine whether the conviction is a "serious conviction" (s 9) or a "lesser conviction" (s 10). Serious convictuons involve imprisonment for more than one year or indeterminate imprisonment or a fine of $15 000 or more.

2. Calculate the prescribed period: Apply s 11 to determine whether the prescribed period has expired. Include any relevant term of imprisonment in the calculation, account for indeterminate sentences as s 11(2) requires and note s 11(4) if other unspent convictions exist at the time of the latest conviction.

3. If a lesser conviction and the prescribed period has elapsed: Apply to the Commissioner of Police in the prescribed form (s 7(1)). The Commissioner must issue a certificate if the application complies (s 7(3)). Ensure you receive the prescribed notice the Commissioner must provide (s 7(4); s 33(2)).

4. If a serious conviction and the prescribed period has elapsed: File an application under s 6(1) to a District Court judge following Schedule 1 requirements: disclose all previous convictions and employment history (Schedule 1 cl 1(1)), serve the Commissioner (Schedule 1 cl 2), and be prepared for a private or public hearing per cl 3. Be mindful of cl 7: the judge may refuse to hear vexatious or unsubstantial applications without a hearing, and s 6(2)(b) bars reapplication within two years after a refusal.

For employers, principals and hiring authorities

1. Check whether a conviction is spent: If a person asserts their conviction is spent, the employer must comply with Div 3 nondiscrimination rules (ss 18-23), unless a Schedule 3 exception applies to the employer, the role, or the regulatory context (Schedule 3).

2. Consult Schedule 3 and regulations: Before requesting disclosure or using spent‑conviction information in recruitment or licensing decisions, verify whether an exception in Schedule 3 or a regulation allows consideration. For roles involving children, disability or security, Schedule 3 contains specific provisions that may allow access and consideration.

3. Where no exception applies: Do not require disclosure, treat the person no less favourably on the ground of a spent conviction, and do not factor spent convictions into character or fitness assessments (s 26(1)). If in doubt, seek advice and document the legal basis for any request.

For police, record holders and screening agencies

1. Handling applications and certificates: The Commissioner of Police must issue certificates for lesser convictions if statutory conditions are met and must be served with copies of s 6 orders (s 7(1), Schedule 1 cl 9(b)). Follow regulatory forms and notice obligations (s 33(2)).

2. Accessing official criminal records: Do not obtain information about spent convictions from official criminal records without lawful reason (s 28(1)). Where you are a prescribed person under s 28(2) or Schedule 3, ensure the access aligns precisely with the enabling screening law and its purpose.

For licensing and regulatory authorities

1. Review statutory obligations: Section 22 prohibits discrimination by authorities that confer authorisations, but Schedule 3 entries may allow exceptions. Ensure any decision to consider spent convictions is supported by a Schedule 3 exception or a regulation under s 16.

2. Use prescribed processes and disclosure forms: Where the Act allows consideration (for example under Schedule 3 or another screening law), follow the disclosure, privacy and procedural requirements set out in the enabling statute and the Spent Convictions Act’s regulatory instruments.

Dispute management and remedies

• If a person contends they suffered discrimination, they must lodge a complaint under the Equal Opportunity Act 1984 (s 24(1)). For s 6 application refusals, the Act’s text provides the procedural steps and potential cost consequences in Schedule 1. Consider judicial review avenues where a public authority fails to follow the Act’s mandatory non‑consideration obligations (s 26(1)), but note the Act itself limits penalties and channels enforcement through the Equal Opportunity Act for discrimination.

Recordkeeping and internal policies

• Organisations should maintain up‑to‑date policies that reflect the statutory rule that spent convictions generally need not be disclosed (s 27) and that written laws requiring disclosure do not require disclosure of spent convictions (s 25(2)). Where exceptions apply, train staff to identify those exceptions and to follow statutory disclosure processes under the relevant screening or licensing laws.

Regulatory monitoring

• Because Schedule 3 and Schedule 2 may be amended by regulation (s 16(1), s 8(2)) and the regulations prescribe critical forms and notices (s 33(2)), organisations and practitioners should monitor the Spent Convictions (Act Amendment) Regulations and related statutory instruments for changes that affect compliance.

Following these steps and cross‑checking Schedule 3 entries and relevant regulations will manage most compliance risks created by the Act’s structure and exceptions.