frequently asked questions
DBS FAQ
Formerly known as a CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) check, a DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) looks at an employee criminal history and, depending on the level of check, information from police intelligence and DBS barred list information. The purpose of all DBS checks is to assist employers with recruitment decisions.
An organisation would be legally liable if a safeguarding issue arises when working with children and/or vulnerable adults. To prevent any potential problems, all eligible staff and volunteers should be checked appropriately.
You will need to use the UK Government Eligibility Tool to find out which level of check each potential member of staff requires.
here are three main levels of DBS check available:
Basic Check – This check shows all unspent convictions of the applicant. Can be applied for by a company.
Standard Check – Eligible for certain roles that don’t have regular contact with children or vulnerable adults such as financial, legal and gaming.
Enhanced Check – This is a mandatory check for roles involving children and vulnerable adults which shows all spent and unspent criminal convictions and reprimands. Not only is this checked against the Police National Computer but also against the children and adults barred lists.
A company or organisation are legally responsible for ensuring an employee is entitled to apply for the job role in question. The employer is legally obliged to ensure that anyone who is working for their organisation in regulated activity with children and vulnerable adults has not been barred from working with adults or children.
Any employee that has received a conviction, whether it be a caution, reprimand or warning, will have this information put on their criminal record and held on the Police National Computer. As defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, after a certain length of time, this criminal record will become ‘spent’ and would no longer appear on a Basic disclosure. If you would like to know the exact time frames for these please contact the DBS directly. Pre-May 2013 legislation saw both Enhanced and Standard disclosures showing all previous convictions, however, since 29th May 2013 certain conditions have seen convictions being ‘filtered’ which means that some offences would not appear on the certificate. There is a large list of conviction types and offences that, under the new legislation, can never be filtered from a certificate.
It is the responsibility of the employer to decide the correct level of disclosure for an employee and the environment they will be working in. Please refer to the disclosure types page for more information on basic, standard and enhanced disclosures.
You can contact the DBS either by email at customerservices@dbs.gsi.gov.uk or alternatively you can contact them by phone on 03000 200 190
Every DBS certificate will have an employer’s name on the hard copy certificate and the job role intended. The certificate will be regulated to correspond with the intended job role. If an applicant gets a new job with a different organisation, they will be required to undertake a new DBS check as the previous certificate will be linked to their former employer and job role. For example, if a person worked as a cleaner in a care home, but then moved to a hospital to work as a care assistant, they would require a new disclosure because the job role and organisation had changed.
Payments, Delivery & Cancellations
90% of Basic checks complete in as little as 24 hours. 85% per cent of all Enhanced applications complete within five days and 62% complete within 24 hours. Standard checks take between 24 hours and 4 calendar days
Although this timescale is mostly accurate, every application is different; some disclosures are processed within 24 hours, but other applications could take slightly longer for several reasons. These often include internal enquiries, a criminal record or an error on an application.
There is no rule that states who is liable to pay for a DBS check. Payment set-up differs for each organisation. Some employers pay for their staff checks, however, other companies opt for their applicants to pay for their own disclosures at the time of application. If you are an applicant, please check with your employer before applying so you are aware of your payment options.
HRcheck Delivery Policy
Deliveries can only be made to addresses within the United Kingdom (including Northern Ireland) This excludes PO Box addresses.
We currently use Royal Mail pre-paid postage to deliver your disclosures to you. Actual delivery times may vary to you depending on your delivery address or circumstances impacting delivery by Royal Mail.
We reserve the rights to use alternative delivery methods without prior notification. You will not hold us responsible for any delays outside our control, which relate to the delivery of completed disclosures.
We reserve the right to cancel your login to the online disclosure system if it becomes apparent that, in our sole opinion, the postal service in your area is too unreliable.
We reserve the right to process and and charge in full for any disclosures unless we have received notice of cancellation before submission to DBS. Any payments you have made for disclosures that have been properly cancelled will be re-credited to you. There is a cancellation fee of £25.00 excl VAT
Despite the above provision, you are entitled to cancel a payment for products where fraudulent use has been made of your payment card by a person not acting, or to be treated as acting as your agent. If you have already made a payment where your payment card has been so fraudulently used, then you should approach your card issuer for re credit to your account.
We reserve the right to terminate or restrict the use of our service, for any or no reason whatsoever. If we terminate your use of our service as a result of a breach of any obligation under these terms, such termination would be immediate and without notice.
