Criminal Records (Clean Slate) Act 2004, s 7
If you’re applying for a job and you’re asked if you have a criminal record, you don’t have to tell the employer about any convictions for minor offences that are seven or more years’ old. There are some other conditions you must meet to qualify for the right to withhold your criminal record in these situations. For example, you must never have been sentenced to prison, you must never have been disqualified indefinitely from driving, and you must have paid any fines or reparation in full.
There are some specific categories of jobs that will require disclosure of all your convictions whenever you got them – for example, police officers, probation officers, and roles dealing with the care and protection of children.
While you do not have to volunteer that you have any criminal convictions (those that are not covered by the Clean Slate Act), if you are asked directly you should answer the question honestly. If you provide false information, the employer might have grounds to fire you. To be able to fire you, they would have had to state in your offer or employment agreement what the consequence of not telling them about your criminal convictions would be. They still have to follow a fair process and consider your explanation before they make that decision.
The employer can either make the job offer or employment agreement conditional on you getting a satisfactory criminal check or they can wait for the check to be completed before deciding to make you a job offer.
For more details about qualifying under this “Clean Slate” scheme, see the chapter “The criminal courts”.