An electoral pledge to allow people with simple drug convictions to wipe their criminal record clean will start off with a public consultation to be held in a few months’ time.

Reforms Parliamentary Secretary Rebecca Buttigieg said on Monday that the consultation would help the government decide on how to move forward and implement the measure.

“This is a question of equality, why should it be that someone who has paid the price for their mistakes, and has also spent years clean, must continue to suffer and not be able to have the same opportunities as others?” she asked.

Buttigieg did not provide details about when the consultation would be published.

The pledge builds on a similar initiative introduced last year as part of a cannabis decriminalisation reform, allowing people caught with other substances to also apply to have that struck from their criminal record.

Parliamentary Secretary Rebecca Buttigieg during Monday's consultation meeting on the expungement of crimes related to simple possession of drugs on a persons police conduct. Photo: Jonathan Borg

Justice Minister Jonathan Attard hinted that the government also plans to allow people to wipe other crimes from their criminal record, though he did not provide any further details.  

“We believe in a society where everyone is accountable, but we must understand that people do change and that they have the right to start a new life, and this reform will ensure that everyone is given equal opportunity,” he said.

The government already allows people to have court judgements erased from an online database after just three years, as part of a controversial measure that is at the discretion of the courts’ director-general.

Justice Minister Jonathan Attard on Monday. Photo: Jonathan Borg

Buttigieg and Attard were speaking at a consultation meeting with stakeholders who work with prisoners and ex-prisoners.

George Busutill from Fondazzjoni Mid-Dlam ghad-Dawl highlighted how many ex-prisoners struggle to find employment as many employers ask for a police conduct certificate. 

They are marked for life because of that certificate, even if they have overcome their problems, he said.

Chairperson of the RISe Foundation Charles Mifsud, an organisation that helps prisoners reintegrate back into society said the conduct does "more harm" than good. 

"Apart from struggling to find work, these people also struggle to open a bank account, because they are asked to provide a copy of their conduct," he said.