Clean Slate Act New Zealand: The 6 Eligibility Criteria Explained

New Zealand's Criminal Records (Clean Slate) Act 2004 automatically conceals most people's old, minor convictions once they meet six conditions set out in law. There is no application to make and no fee to pay. This page sets out the six criteria, what concealment does and does not cover, and how to check your own criminal record.

This is general information about New Zealand law, not legal advice. For your own situation, consult a lawyer or your local Community Law centre.

What the Clean Slate Act does

The Criminal Records (Clean Slate) Act 2004 lets a person with a minor criminal history lawfully answer no when asked, in most situations, whether they have a criminal conviction, once their convictions are legally concealed. Concealment happens automatically once someone meets all six criteria in the Act. Nobody needs to apply to the Ministry of Justice or pay a fee.

Concealment is not the same as having a conviction erased or expunged. The conviction still exists on the record. What changes is that, outside a defined set of exceptions, the person is treated in law as though they do not have that conviction, and does not have to declare it.

The six criteria, and all six must be met

A person is likely eligible for automatic concealment under the Clean Slate Act if they meet all six of the following criteria. Missing even one means concealment does not apply, no matter how well the others are met.

• No convictions in the last 7 years.
• Never been sentenced to a custodial sentence, such as prison, corrective training, or borstal, at any time.
• Never been convicted of a "specified offence" listed in section 4 of the Act (see below).
• Never been ordered by a court to be detained in a hospital instead of being sentenced, under the Criminal Procedure (Mentally Impaired Persons) Act 2003, because of a mental condition.
• Never been disqualified from driving indefinitely, sometimes described as banned "until further notice."
• Fully paid any fine, reparation, compensation, or costs a court ordered in a criminal case.

These criteria look at a person's entire history, not just the most recent conviction. A single custodial sentence from decades ago, for example, permanently rules out Clean Slate eligibility even if every conviction since has been minor and the 7-year window has long passed.

What counts as a "specified offence"

Section 4 of the Criminal Records (Clean Slate) Act 2004 defines "specified offence" by reference to a schedule of offences, and it is mostly serious sexual offending. The Ministry of Justice's plain-language pages describe the category but do not list every offence on the schedule; they point readers to the Act itself.

VERIFY: recordinglaw.com has not independently reproduced the full section 4 schedule here. If you are trying to work out whether a specific past conviction counts as a specified offence, check the Act's text or get legal advice, since this is the criterion most likely to be misjudged by someone estimating their own eligibility.

Where a concealed conviction can still surface

A handful of situations sit outside Clean Slate concealment. Certain roles and processes still require full disclosure of a person's complete criminal history, regardless of how old the convictions are or whether the person otherwise meets all six criteria:

• Police roles.
• Prison or probation roles.
• Judicial roles, including judges, Justices of the Peace, and Community Magistrates.
• National security roles.
• Safety checks of people who work with children, under the Children's Act 2014.

Clean Slate also does not apply outside New Zealand. New Zealand legislation cannot bind a foreign government, so it has no effect on another country's immigration or border disclosure requirements. Some New Zealand visa vetting checks release all convictions regardless of age. Anyone travelling or applying for a visa should check the specific requirements of the country or process involved rather than assume Clean Slate carries over.

How to check your own criminal record

It is free to request a copy of your own criminal record from the Ministry of Justice, either through its online service or a paper form. The Ministry aims to respond within 20 working days, and says most requests are answered well within that. This is the most reliable way to confirm what currently shows on your record, including whether Clean Slate has concealed anything.

Clean Slate and jury service are different tests

The Clean Slate Act's 7-year no-conviction rule is a separate legal test from the criminal-conviction disqualification for jury service. They look at different windows and different thresholds, and one does not determine the other. Meeting the Clean Slate 7-year rule does not automatically mean someone is qualified to serve on a jury, and being disqualified from jury service does not affect Clean Slate eligibility. See jury service in New Zealand for the jury-specific rules.

Related New Zealand criminal records topics

For more on New Zealand criminal records law, see the New Zealand criminal records section.