Alistair FinchOn 4 October 2026, Jeffrey Archer — peer of the realm, convicted perjurer, and one of Britain's best-selling novelists — took to the stage at Leicester Square Theatre to celebrate the publication of "Adam and Eve," his twenty-third and final novel. HarperCollins is printing a book by a man who spent two years in Belmarsh, Wayland, and North Sea Camp prisons after his July 2001 conviction for perjury and perverting the course of justice. Fifty years after his literary debut, his career stands as a remarkable illustration of how criminal convictions interact with professional life in England and Wales — and the legal answer to that question changed fundamentally in October 2023.
A Career Interrupted — and Then Continued
In July 2001, Archer was sentenced to four years' imprisonment for perjury and perverting the course of justice, offences committed during a 1987 defamation trial. He was released in July 2003 after serving two years on parole. Under the law as it stood at that moment, his conviction could never be legally "spent" — the original Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (ROA 1974) drew a hard line: any custodial sentence exceeding 30 months was permanently unspent, regardless of how many decades had passed.
Yet HarperCollins continued to publish him. His three-part "A Prison Diary" series sold in the hundreds of thousands. He went on to write five further novels in the William Warwick crime series and a final standalone. By October 2026, he is announcing his retirement from novel-writing — not his removal from the bookshelves.
His trajectory is unusual in scale, not in principle. Around 600,000 people in England and Wales receive a criminal caution or conviction every year. A significant proportion carry those records into job applications, contract renewals, and professional reviews for years afterwards. The critical question many of them ask — does a conviction end a career in law? — now has a very different answer from the one it had even three years ago.
What the 2023 Reforms to the ROA Actually Changed
Section 193 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 came into force on 28 October 2023, introducing the most significant amendments to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act in the legislation's 50-year history. The reforms made two structural changes.
First, the old "never spent" threshold — any custodial sentence over 30 months — was replaced with a more targeted rule. Now only sentences exceeding four years for serious violent, sexual, or terrorist offences are categorised as never spent. Perjury, fraud, drug supply, most financial crimes, and a broad range of white-collar offences are excluded from that serious-offence category. For those crimes, even sentences of four years or longer now carry finite rehabilitation periods — after which the conviction becomes spent.
Second, the rehabilitation periods for shorter custodial sentences were reduced, meaning more people move to spent status faster.
The practical effect has been significant: hundreds of thousands of people whose convictions were previously frozen in permanent unspent status gained, for the first time since the original Act was passed, a statutory path to rehabilitation. Under the law as it exists in 2026, an individual sentenced to exactly four years for perjury — as Archer was — would enter a finite rehabilitation period rather than be locked into permanent disclosure, provided perjury is not reclassified as a serious-category offence.
What Employers Can and Cannot Do
The protections in the ROA bite at the moment a conviction becomes spent. Before that point, most employers are entitled to ask about and consider unspent convictions during hiring or performance reviews. After a conviction becomes spent, they are not — unless the role falls within one of the statutory exceptions: working with children or vulnerable adults, regulated financial services, certain legal, healthcare, and security professions.
An employer who acts on a spent conviction runs a clear legal risk. Where an employee is dismissed and the dismissal is motivated — even in part — by the existence of a spent conviction, that dismissal is likely to be unfair. Crucially, the standard qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims (two years of continuous service, as of 2026) does not automatically apply where the dismissal reason is itself unlawful: courts have treated spent-conviction dismissals as falling outside the ordinary qualifying framework.
Commercial arrangements outside direct employment — freelance contracts, publishing deals, agency agreements — are not directly regulated by the ROA in the same way. But a counterparty that terminates a commercial contract on the ground that a conviction has been discovered carries both contractual and reputational exposure, particularly where that conviction is or is shortly to become spent.
The Concrete Case: Sarah, 41, HR Consultant, Leeds
Consider a scenario that played out hundreds of times in the months following the October 2023 reforms. Sarah is a 41-year-old self-employed HR consultant in Leeds. In March 2018, she received a two-year suspended sentence for fraud by false representation. Under the original ROA rules, her rehabilitation period ran for two years from conviction — meaning her sentence became spent in March 2020.
By January 2026, she has been providing retained consultancy services to a regional NHS Trust under rolling annual contracts worth £38,000 per year. During a periodic supplier verification exercise, the Trust flags her 2020 spent conviction and initiates a process to terminate the contract on safeguarding grounds.
Here the if/then logic is precise:
- If the Trust's role falls within the ROA exemption (healthcare providers working with vulnerable adults): the Trust may lawfully take the spent conviction into account. Sarah's claim fails on the ROA point, though she may have other contractual arguments.
- If the Trust's role is not within the exemption (an administrative HR function with no patient contact): the Trust cannot lawfully rely on the spent conviction. Sarah's solicitor sends a letter noting the spent status, identifying the applicable rehabilitation period, and requesting written confirmation of the contractual basis for termination. If the Trust proceeds, Sarah's legal costs for a county court or Tribunal claim are estimated at £2,500–£4,000 on a straightforward ROA point, against potential contract-breach damages of up to £38,000 (the annual contract value) plus consequential losses.
- If the Trust sought legal advice before acting: the cost of a 90-minute employment law opinion — approximately £250–£450 from a specialist solicitor — would likely have identified the exposure before any termination notice was issued.
The asymmetry is stark. Acting on a spent conviction without legal advice costs a fraction of the potential liability for the employer — and can cost the individual everything, unless they know how to respond.
Practical Steps If a Conviction Is Affecting Your Work
Whether you are an employee, a contractor, or a self-employed professional, the first step is to establish definitively whether your conviction is spent. The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, as amended, is published in full at legislation.gov.uk. Calculating spent status requires knowing the sentence imposed (not the sentence served), the exact date of conviction, and whether the offence falls within the restricted serious-offence category introduced by the 2023 amendments.
If your conviction is spent and an employer or client has acted on it, take these steps immediately:
- Document all communications: keep every letter, email, or note in which the conviction was mentioned.
- Act quickly: unfair dismissal claims must be referred to ACAS for early conciliation within three months, minus one day, of the dismissal date. Breach-of-contract claims carry longer limitation periods, but early action preserves evidence and negotiating leverage.
- Request written reasons: an employer or client is unlikely to put a spent-conviction basis formally in writing — but requesting it in writing signals that you understand the law and creates a paper trail.
An employment or civil litigation solicitor can assess whether the ROA applies to your circumstances, whether any exemption covers the role in question, and whether the strongest course of action is Tribunal proceedings or a without-prejudice settlement. Most ROA-focused consultations run one to two hours; typical initial advice fees range from £150 to £450.
The Lesson Behind the Headlines
Jeffrey Archer's career trajectory is, of course, exceptional. He had a publisher willing to back him, a readership willing to follow him, and the financial resources to weather the consequences of conviction without needing to rely on statutory protections. Most people with criminal records do not.
What the October 2023 amendments did — quietly, without much public fanfare — was extend to hundreds of thousands of people the legal protection that always existed for those with shorter sentences. The ROA 1974 was designed to let people move forward. For half a century, its 30-month ceiling prevented that for a large share of those who needed it most.
If a conviction is affecting your employment, contracts, or professional standing in 2026, the legal landscape has shifted in ways that may well work in your favour. A solicitor who specialises in employment or criminal records law can tell you whether the 2023 changes apply to your situation — and what your next step should be.
This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Rehabilitation periods depend on the specific sentence imposed, conviction date, and offence category. If your situation involves a criminal conviction affecting your employment or contracts, seek advice from a qualified solicitor.
