Published on 19 June 2023

FOURTH SECTION

Application no. 12799/21 S.O. against the United Kingdom lodged on 26 February 2021 communicated on 2 June 2023

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

The applicant was convicted in 1990, aged fourteen, of arson. The circumstances of the offence were that she and some friends were attending bonfire night celebrations at her school and had lit a fire to keep warm. They had briefly left the fire unattended and it had unexpectedly caught hold. The applicant and her friends called the fire brigade and the fire was extinguished. It caused damage to a school door and there was also smoke damage to the school. The applicant pleaded guilty and received a two-year conditional discharge and order to pay fifty pounds sterling in damages and ten pounds sterling in costs. She has no other convictions.

The applicant now works for the National Health Service. She would like to apply for a management position but under domestic legislation would be obliged to disclose her conviction for arson. She complains that the requirement to disclose her childhood conviction breaches her Article 8 rights.

QUESTION TO THE PARTIES

Having regard in particular to the applicant’s age at the time the offence was committed, does the obligation to disclose her childhood conviction pursuant to the legislation currently in place violate her right to respect for her private life under Article 8 of the Convention (see M.M. v. the United Kingdom , no. 24029/07, 13 November 2012; and M.C. v. the United Kingdom , no. 51220/13, 30 March 2021)?