by 
The Curious Bag
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If you are convicted of a crime, that conviction will stay on public record, sometimes indefinitely. In the UK, some convictions can become spent and be removed from the record, meaning you have served time and passed through a conviction period. Until then, your conviction is unspent.
Function
The unspent period is called a time of rehabilitation in which the convicted person does not re-offend after conviction and/or time served. After this time, your conviction is removed from public record.
Time Frame
Some criminal convictions remain unspent regardless of elapsed time. For example, any crime that required a prison sentence of more than 2½ years remains unspent.
Minors
For minors under 18 with criminal convictions, the unspent rehabilitation period is cut in half.
Disclosure
During unspent conviction time, a person must disclose convictions when applying for jobs and on other applications.
U.S. Counterpart
The closest thing to an unspent conviction time in the United States is parole, a time period in which the criminal reports regularly to a parole officer. However, the United States does not remove criminal records after the parole period has elapsed. A past convict or anyone who has been arrested can petition a court for expungement of his record, which is similar to a spent conviction. However, it is typically difficult to obtain an expungement.
Source:
http://www.guysandstthomas.nhs.uk
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