Commentary on Sections Part 5 - Criminal Justice Section 104 - Risk of sexual harm orders: spent convictions
509.This section inserts a new paragraph (bc) into section 7(2) of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. It provides that nothing in section 4(1) of that Act is to affect the determination of any issue or prevent the admission or requirement of any evidence relating to a person’s previous convictions or to circumstances ancillary thereto in any proceedings under sections 2, 4, 5 and in any appeal under section 6 of the Protection of Children and Prevention of Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2005 (proceedings in relation to Risk of Sexual Harm Orders).
510.This provision therefore allows evidence of previous convictions which are spent for the purposes of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 to be led in proceedings for Risk of Sexual Harm Orders in Scotland.