Revised Laws of Saint Lucia (2021)

6.   Effect of rehabiltiation

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   (1)   Subject to the provisions of this Act, a person who is a rehabilitated person within the meaning of this Act, shall be treated for all purposes in law as a person who has not committed or been charged with or prosecuted for or convicted of or sentenced for the offence or offences which were the subject of that conviction and not- withstanding the provisions of any other enactment to the contrary—

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      (a)     no evidence shall be admissible in any proceedings before a judicial authority to prove that any such person has committed or had been charged with or prosecuted for or convicted of or sentenced for any offence which was the subject of a spent conviction; and

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      (b)     a person shall not, in any such proceedings, be asked, and, if asked, shall not be required to answer, any questions relating to his or her past which cannot be answered without acknowledging or referring to a spent conviction or spent convictions or any circumstances ancillary thereto.

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   (2)   Subject to the provisions of this Act, where a question seeking information with respect to a person's previous convictions, offences, conduct or circumstances is put to him or her or to any other person otherwise than in proceedings before a court—

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      (a)     the question shall be treated as not relating to spent convictions or to any circumstances ancillary to spent convictions, and the answer thereto may be framed accordingly; and

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      (b)     the person questioned shall not be subjected to any liability or otherwise prejudiced in law by reason of any failure to acknowledge or disclose a spent conviction in his or her answer to the question.

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   (3)   Subject to the provisions of this Act—

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      (a)     any obligation imposed on any person by any rule of law or by the provisions of any agreement or arrangement to disclose any matters to any other person shall not extend to requiring him or her to disclose a spent conviction whether or not the conviction is his or her own; and

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      (b)     a conviction which has become spent, or any failure to disclose a spent conviction, shall not be a proper ground for dismissing or excluding a person from any office, profession, occupation or employment, or for prejudicing him or her in any way in any occupation or employment.

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   (4)   The Minister may, by Order in the Gazette make such provisions as seem to him or her appropriate for excluding or modifying the application of any of the provisions of this section.

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   (5)   For the purposes of this section, “proceedings before a judicial authority” includes in addition to proceedings before any of the ordinary courts of law, proceedings before any tribunal, body or person having power—

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      (a)     by virtue of any provisions of law, custom or practice;

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      (b)     under the rules governing any association, institution, profession, occupation or employment; or

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      (c)     under any provision of an agreement providing for arbitration, with respect to questions arising thereunder, to determine any question affecting the rights, privileges, obligations or liabilities of any person, or to receive evidence affecting the determination of any such question.

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   (6)   For the purposes of this section any of the following are circumstances ancillary to a conviction—

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      (a)     the offence or offences which were the subject of that conviction;

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      (b)     the conduct constituting that offence or those offences; and

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      (c)     any process or proceedings preliminary to that conviction, any sentence imposed in respect of that conviction, any proceedings, whether by way of appeal or otherwise for reviewing that conviction or any such sentence, and anything done in pursuance of or undergone in compliance with any such sentence.