Post
by asim72 » Fri Aug 17, 2012 12:22 pm
There was not much point in sending a foi request at this point, as UKBA themselves do not know clearly what the position will be in future. You do not need to worry too much as there are thousands of people, and big gun legal experts already on the case.
Section 139 of laspo amends the rehabilitation periods.
Section 140 of laspo excludes immigration and nationality decisions from rehabilitaion periods.
Section 141 of laspo gives transitional arrangements.
Please note, none of the sections of the act have yet been "commenced", so nothing in the new act has any effect yet. Government has said that they will "commence" the act some point in 2013.
So, once section 139 and 140 are "commenced" by the government, then UKBA will have the right to ask for disclosure of convictions no matter when they took place.
Does it mean UKBA will refuse every applicant because they have a conviction? The answer is NO.
The act simply gives power to UKBA to set their own critieria as to when they will overlook a certain conviction. This criteria could be easier than the section 139 periods or could be difficult. Once government is about to "commence" section 140, UKBA will come up with their guidance dealing with convictions.
Just purely for example sake, UKBA could come up with something like:
Fines: Upto £ 100 disregarded after 2 years. More than £100 and upto 250 disregarded after 5 years.
SP30 conviction: Disregarded after 2 years.
IN10 conviction: Disregarded after 6 years.
DR10 conviction: Disregarded after 10 years.
etc etc
I have just purely given examples, just to explain that UKBA will be free to set their own critieria, without being bound by the rehabilitation periods set out in section 139.
So, guys, there wont be any new secret information that someone could provide, until government announces a date to "commence" section 139, 140 & 141, and also UKBA publishes their guidance to deal with the applications affected by the laspo act.
