Section 3 – Identification and notification of quashed convictions
10.Section 3 provides for aspects of the administrative process for identifying which convictions have been quashed by section 1. It also provides for relevant individuals to be notified following the quashing of their convictions.
11.Subsection (1) places a duty on the Scottish Ministers to take all reasonable steps to identify the convictions which are quashed by section 1. This might include, but is not limited to, reviewing information held by Police Scotland, the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, Post Office Limited, and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.
12.Subsection (2) places a duty on the Scottish Ministers to notify the convicting court of the details of any identified quashed convictions. Under subsection (3), the convicting court will then be obliged to update its records by removing the record of conviction and substituting a record that the conviction was quashed by this legislation.
13.Subsection (4) places a further duty on the Scottish Ministers to take all reasonable steps to notify anyone whose conviction has been quashed (or, if they are no longer alive, their personal representatives) of the quashing of their conviction. If it is not reasonably practicable to notify either the convicted person or, where applicable, their personal representatives, then the Scottish Ministers must take all reasonable steps to identify another person whom they consider it appropriate to notify, and notify that person. For example, this might involve contacting the person’s next of kin in a case where the convicted person has died and the executors in their estate are either untraceable or have also died. It might also involve contacting a person’s next of kin if the person themselves is untraceable.
14.Subsection (5) places a duty on the Scottish Ministers to consider representations made by a convicted person, or by someone else (whether acting formally on their behalf or simply as a third party), that the person was convicted of a relevant offence. This will ensure that where a conviction is not identified by the Scottish Ministers under subsection (1), but a person believes that their conviction satisfies the criteria and is therefore quashed, the Scottish Ministers are obliged to consider representations made on that person’s behalf. If that consideration leads to the conclusion that the conviction is one to which section 1 applies, the duties in section 3(2), 3(3) and 3(4) apply to that conviction.
