Commentary on Sections Part 5: Criminal Records Section 41: Review of criminal record certificates
This section inserts section 117B and Schedule 8A into the 1997 Act to make provision for a review mechanism as part of the filtering scheme operated by AccessNI. The review process will be undertaken by an independent person appointed by the Minister of Justice.
It will enable a person to seek, in certain circumstances, a review of their case where a conviction or other disposal has not been filtered from their standard or enhanced criminal record certificate.  The provision includes an automatic referral for cases where disclosures relate only to spent convictions or other disposals committed under the age of 18.
The section also provides for the publication of guidance to which the independent reviewer must have regard in exercising his or her functions under Schedule 8A to the 1997 Act.