Under Schedule 1 of the Act, a number of agencies are exempted from the provisions that make it an offence to access information about spent convictions. Further exclusions may also be set out by regulation [sch 1, cl 14].

However, under s 13A, a person in relation to whom a conviction for an offence is spent may apply to a qualified magistrate for an order that some of these exclusions do not apply in relation to the offence [see also Uniform Special Statutory Rules 2022 (SA) Chapter 7 Part 6]. These applications are limited to the exclusions relating to care of vulnerable people and activities associated with a character test for registration, licensing and accreditation purposes. An application under s 13A must comply with Form 1Y Originating Application – Spent Convictions Act – Exemption Order [see Uniform Special Statutory Rules 2022 (SA) r 327.2]. A National Police Check (NPC) must be attached, where the NPC was processed within the 6-month period before the date of filing an exemption order application. An application cannot be made if the same application has been refused by a magistrate within the preceding two years [see s 13A(3)].

The regulations may also provide that an exclusion set out in schedule 1 does not apply in relation to convictions that are taken to be immediately spent under s 4(1a) [Sch 1 cl 1(a1) (4)]. Regulation 5AA provides for these purposes that exclusions do not apply to immediately spent convictions under section 4(1a) for the following agencies:

Exclusions will continue to apply for immediately spent convictions in relation to the following:

The regulations also provide that if the conduct that was the subject of the immediately spent conviction was also the subject of a breach of the person's employment conditions, the employer may discipline or dismiss the employee and refer to the spent conviction as a referee to other prospective employers who may take it into account [Spent Convictions Regulations 2011 (SA) reg 6].