Taxi and Landlord Registration

As part of both the landlord registration process and the taxi and private hire car licensing process, you must demonstrate to your Local Authority that you are a “fit and proper” person.

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As a part of the process, you will therefore need to declare any criminal convictions you may have.

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The sorts of convictions Local Authorities are likely to take into consideration are:

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• Fraud, dishonesty, firearms offences, violence or drugs offences 
• Unlawful discrimination 
• Breaches of any law relating to housing 
• Failure to act in relation to antisocial behaviour 
• Sexual offences 
• Repairing standard enforcement orders

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Do I need to declare spent convictions?

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Yes. Article 4 and Schedule 3 of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exclusions and Exceptions) (Scotland) Order 2013, require that you disclose spent convictions in your application. 

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However, there are some exceptions. These are referred to as “protected convictions”.

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What are Protected Convictions?

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A person’s conviction is a protected conviction if:

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• It is a spent conviction; and
• Either

i. It is not a conviction for an offence listed in Schedule A1 or B1; or

ii. It is a conviction for an offence listed in Schedule B1 and at least one of the conditions specified in paragraph (2) is satisfied.

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The conditions are:

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• The sentence is imposed in respect of the conviction was an admonition or an absolute discharge
• The person was aged under 18 on the date of conviction and at least 7 years and 6 months have passed since the date of conviction; and
• The person was aged 18 or over on the date of conviction and at least 15 years have passed since the date of conviction.

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The reference to an absolute discharge includes a reference to the discharge of the referral of a child’s case to a children’s hearing under section 69(1)(b) and (12) of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 or section 91(3)(b), 93(2)(b), 108(3)(b) or 119(3)(b) of the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011.

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