I asked my solicitor about declaring spent convictions. He said if you don't declare it they treat it like not declaring any past accident or claim. If you have an accident in the future they may increase the cost of your insurance for not declaring.
I'm wondering if there's a difference between the 5 year spent (no prosecution for not decaring it) or if the 11 years spent ie- a criminal conviction stays on your license for 11 years, plays any part in the insurer being able to rise your insurance cost.??
Your solicitor is 100% wrong...
The rehabilitation of offenders act means that once a certain period has passed (in the case of a drink drive/in charge offense this is 5 years) then as far as anybody else needs to know, you have not has a conviction.
Sure, it can be on your licence for 11 years, depending on the actual offence, but technically nobody else apart from the police, dvla and yourself can find out. If you need to hire a car after 5 years, the licence code that you provide will show you have no convictions/disqualifications.
Some may argue that providing an employer your driving licence number, NI number and postcode, they can log in as you and will see the conviction - however this is illegal under data protection and anybody doing this can be fined and/or convicted themselves. If they accidentally find out about spent convictions, they are supposed to 'ignore' them...
For the period your conviction is unspent, if an employer or insurer specifically asks you if you have a conviction, then you MUST declare it. If you don't, you are committing an offence and can be prosecuted, fired from the job, accused of fraud and find any insurance is invalid.