Jobs that require a DBS check

For some jobs, the position is more complicated. These are jobs covered by the Exceptions Order to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (the Exceptions Order) and include working with children or vulnerable adults. Applicants for these jobs are not allowed to stay silent if asked by an employer about spent convictions. They must also undergo criminal records checking.

The criminal records checking regime was put in place by the Police Act 1997. A criminal records check (now called a Disclosure and Barring Check) is carried out by the Disclosure and Barring Service, which is part of the Home Office and involves a search of the Police National Computer. The search will disclose “any relevant matter”, which includes spent and unspent convictions and some cautions.

There are three levels of DBS check:

• standard level: for an occupation included in the Exceptions Order;

• enhanced level: for an occupation included in the Exceptions Order and the Police Act (Criminal Records) Regulations; and

• enhanced check with Children’s and/or Adults’ Barred List check: to find out whether someone is listed as unsuitable for working with children or vulnerable adults.

The DBS certificate is only seen by the prospective employer and the applicant. A DBS check should only be carried out on a successful job applicant. The job can then be withdrawn if the DBS check reveals anything that makes the applicant unsuitable. About four million DRB checks are carried out each year.

The law changed in 2013 after a court ruling that later reached the Supreme Court (R (T) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2015] 1 AC 49). This ruling decided that criminal records checks that reveal all past cautions and offences, however old or irrelevant, even those dating from childhood, infringe Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the right to privacy).

In response, the government changed the law. As a result some old and minor offences and convictions are now “filtered”, meaning that they should not appear on a standard and enhanced level DBS check and must not be taken into account by an employer.

Many offences can never be filtered, will always appear on the DBS certificate and must be disclosed on request by the employer when applying for any job that needs a DBS check. For more information, visit the website of NACRO, the crime reduction charity, or hub.unlock.org.uk, an independent charity for people with convictions.

An employer carrying out criminal records checks must have a policy in place on employing ex-offenders and must show this to any applicant who asks to see it.

Employers providing care services for adults, for example, in a care home, can also use an extra service called DBS Adult First, which will confirm, usually within two days, whether the applicant can start work under supervision, or alternatively whether they must wait for the results of an enhanced check.