Police Caution and DBS Solicitors

Updated 17 September 2026 to reflect the removal of the supervision exemption by the Crime and Policing Act 2026, in force from 1 September 2026. First published 8 February 2017.

“Regulated activity with children” is the legal test that decides whether an organisation can ask for an Enhanced DBS check that includes a search of the Children’s Barred List, whether it is a criminal offence for a barred person to do the work, and whether the organisation must refer someone to the DBS for possible barring. It matters to anyone who works or volunteers with children — and it matters more than ever to anyone with a police caution, conviction or other police record, because from 1 September 2026 the definition has been widened.

This article explains what regulated activity with children is, what changed on 1 September 2026, who is now caught by it, what is still outside it, and what the change means if you have something on your record that you would rather an employer or club did not see.

The change in brief

• Since 2012, teaching, training, instructing, caring for or supervising children was not regulated activity if you did it under the reasonable day-to-day supervision of someone who was themselves in regulated activity. The same “supervision exemption” took supervised volunteers in schools, colleges and childcare settings out of regulated activity.
• Section 139 of the Crime and Policing Act 2026 removed the supervision exemption in England and Wales, and section 140 made the same change for Northern Ireland. The change was brought into force on 1 September 2026. It implements a recommendation of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).
• From that date, if you teach, train, instruct, care for or supervise children often enough (or overnight), you are in regulated activity whether or not someone supervises you. Paid or unpaid, school or sports club, the supervision question no longer arises.
• Organisations can now obtain an Enhanced DBS check with Children’s Barred List information for roles that previously only qualified for a standard Enhanced check, or for no check at all. The legislation does not itself make checks compulsory (that turns on sector rules, such as those for schools and registered childcare), but sector guidance (for example Keeping Children Safe in Education 2026) and organisations’ own safer-recruitment policies mean that, in practice, many people will be asked for a new check this autumn.
• Scotland is not affected: it operates the separate PVG scheme.

Where the definition comes from

Regulated activity relating to children is defined in Schedule 4 to the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 (SVGA). The original 2006 definition was very wide. The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 scaled it back to focus, in the Government’s words at the time, on “work which involves close and unsupervised contact with vulnerable groups including children” — and it was the 2012 Act that introduced the supervision exemption which has now been removed.

There are two routes into regulated activity with children: doing one of the listed activities, or doing certain work in a specified establishment. Both routes are subject to a frequency threshold, explained below.

Route 1: the listed activities

Teaching, training, instruction, care and supervision

Any form of teaching, training or instruction of children is regulated activity, unless the teaching, training or instruction is merely incidental to teaching, training or instruction of people who are not children. Any form of care for or supervision of children is likewise regulated activity. Both are subject to the frequency test or the period condition (see below).

Before 1 September 2026, these activities were excluded if they were carried out on a regular basis under the day-to-day supervision of another person who was engaging in regulated activity. That exclusion has gone.

Advice or guidance

Advice or guidance provided wholly or mainly for children which relates to their physical, emotional or educational well-being is regulated activity if done frequently or if the period condition is satisfied. Legal advice is excluded.

Moderating online services

Moderating a public electronic interactive communication service which is likely to be used wholly or mainly by children is regulated activity, provided the moderator has access to the content or contact with users, and the frequency or period condition is met.

Driving

Driving a vehicle being used only for conveying children and their carers or supervisors, under prescribed arrangements, is regulated activity subject to the frequency or period condition.

Personal care

“Relevant personal care” is regulated activity even if done only once — the frequency test does not apply. It covers physical assistance with eating or drinking, toileting, washing, bathing or dressing where the child needs help because of age, illness or disability; prompting and supervising a child with those tasks where the child cannot decide for themselves; and training, instruction, advice or guidance about those tasks given to a child who needs it for the same reasons.

Health care

Health care provided by, or under the direction or supervision of, a health care professional is regulated activity, again without any frequency requirement. It covers all forms of health care relating to physical or mental health, including palliative care and procedures similar to medical or surgical care. Health care that is not provided by or under the direction or supervision of a health care professional remains outside regulated activity.

Childminding and fostering

Registered (or voluntarily registered) childminding on domestic premises for reward is regulated activity, as is fostering, subject to exceptions for family members and certain private fostering arrangements.

Route 2: work in a specified establishment

Work — paid or unpaid — in one of the following establishments is regulated activity if it is done frequently or satisfies the period condition, is done for or in connection with the purposes of the establishment, and gives the person the opportunity to have contact with children:

• schools (including academies and free schools), and other institutions exclusively or mainly for the full-time education of children;
• pupil referral units;
• nursery schools;
• institutions for the detention of children;
• children’s homes;
• children’s centres in England;
• childcare premises, including nurseries.

(Northern Ireland’s list of establishments differs slightly.) Occasional or temporary contracted or volunteer work that is not teaching, training, instruction, care or supervision — a plumber called out to fix a boiler, for instance — remains outside regulated activity. A parent’s own home used to provide childcare for their own child is also excluded.

Before 1 September 2026, a volunteer working in one of these establishments under the day-to-day supervision of a person in regulated activity was excluded. That exclusion has also gone. Paid work (‘work for gain’, in the statutory language) in a specified establishment was never subject to a supervision exclusion, so nothing changes for paid staff there; the exclusion that has gone applied only to unpaid, supervised work.

The frequency test and the period condition

Apart from relevant personal care and health care, an activity only counts as regulated activity if it is carried out frequently or satisfies the period condition. The Department for Education treats “frequently” as once a week or more. The period condition is met if the activity is carried out at any time on more than three days in any period of 30 days, or at any time between 2am and 6am with the opportunity for face-to-face contact with children.

These thresholds are unchanged. That is why the DBS is at pains to say that the removal of the supervision exemption does not make every role involving children regulated activity. A parent who helps at a school fair, or who accompanies a single day trip, is still not in regulated activity. A parent who helps with reading every Tuesday, or who volunteers on an overnight residential, now is.

Exactly what section 139 removed

For the lawyers and safeguarding leads, section 139 of the Crime and Policing Act 2026 amends Schedule 4 to the SVGA by omitting:

• paragraph 2(3A) — the exclusion for teaching, training or instruction carried out under regular day-to-day supervision by a person in regulated activity;
• paragraph 2(3B)(b) — the equivalent exclusion for care or supervision of children carried out under such supervision;
• paragraph 2(3C) — the “reasonable in all the circumstances” test for what counted as day-to-day supervision;
• paragraph 1(2B)(b) (together with paragraphs 1(2C) and 1(15)) — the exclusion for supervised volunteers in specified establishments; and
• paragraph 5A — the Secretary of State’s duty to publish statutory guidance on supervision. The DfE guidance Supervision of activity with children was accordingly withdrawn on 31 August 2026.

Section 140 makes corresponding amendments to the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups (Northern Ireland) Order 2007.

Who is newly caught

The people most affected are those whose roles were previously kept out of regulated activity only because someone else supervised them. Typical examples now in regulated activity are:

• assistant or junior coaches at sports clubs who work under a head coach;
• parent and other volunteer helpers in classrooms, on residential trips and in after-school clubs;
• volunteers at youth groups, uniformed organisations, faith groups, drama and music groups and holiday clubs;
• supervised paid staff in settings outside schools — leisure centres, tuition centres, activity providers, museums and arts venues;
• students on placement who teach or supervise children under a mentor.

What is still outside regulated activity

• Activity that does not meet the frequency test or period condition (with the exception of personal care and health care).
• Teaching, training or instruction that is merely incidental to work with adults.
• Anything done in the course of a family relationship, or a personal relationship for no commercial consideration (section 58 SVGA).
• Supervising a child in the course of the child’s own employment, unless the child is under 16 and the supervisor is specifically arranged to look after them and is themselves unsupervised.
• Occasional or temporary work in a specified establishment that is not teaching, training, instruction, care or supervision.
• Health care not provided by or under the direction or supervision of a health care professional; legal advice.

What follows from being in regulated activity

Enhanced DBS check with barred list. Only a person engaged (or about to be engaged) in regulated activity can be checked against the Children’s Barred List. Organisations that could previously obtain only a standard Enhanced check — or no check at all — for a supervised role can now apply for an Enhanced check with Children’s Barred List information. DBS checks for volunteers remain free of charge, and from 5 October 2026 the fee for a paid Enhanced check falls from £49.50 to £41.

Offences. It is a criminal offence for a person on the Children’s Barred List to engage, or seek to engage, in regulated activity with children, and an offence for an organisation knowingly to permit a barred person to do so.

Duty to refer. A “regulated activity provider” has a legal duty to refer a person to the DBS where it removes them from regulated activity (or would have done had they not left) because it believes they have harmed or pose a risk of harm to a child. Because many more organisations are now regulated activity providers in respect of many more roles, the number of referrals — and of people receiving a “minded to bar” letter — is likely to rise.

Are checks compulsory? Neither the 2026 Act nor the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act imposes a general duty to obtain a check; they define who is eligible for which level of check and make it an offence for a barred person to do the work, or for an organisation knowingly to let them. Whether a check is legally required depends on the setting: schools, registered childcare and regulated care settings must obtain Enhanced checks with barred list information under their own regulations. For other organisations — sports clubs, youth groups, faith groups — the obligation is practical rather than statutory. The DBS has also confirmed that there is no legal requirement to suspend someone while a new check is awaited. In practice, however, statutory guidance for schools and colleges, sports governing body rules and organisations’ own policies mean that most people newly in regulated activity will be asked for a check, and many who already hold an Enhanced certificate without barred list information will be asked for a fresh one (unless they are on the Update Service and their existing certificate is of the right type).

What this means if you have a caution, conviction or other police record

This is the part that brings people to this site. A wave of first-time Enhanced checks on long-serving volunteers and assistants means a wave of people discovering — sometimes decades after the event — what an Enhanced certificate will show.

An Enhanced DBS certificate will disclose every unspent caution or conviction; every spent caution or conviction that is not protected by the filtering rules (broadly, any caution for a “specified” offence at any time, any conviction for a specified offence or that resulted in a custodial sentence, and any other adult conviction less than 11 years old or adult caution less than six years old); and any other information a chief officer of police reasonably believes to be relevant to the role, which can include allegations that never led to a charge. See what shows up on an Enhanced DBS check and our sister site’s guide to whether police cautions show on an Enhanced DBS check.

If you are about to be asked for an Enhanced check with barred list information, there are three things worth knowing:

1. A caution can often be deleted before the check is run. A simple caution is not a conviction and the police can be asked to delete it from the Police National Computer under the national Record Deletion Process, administered through ACRO. Cautions accepted in questionable circumstances, for minor matters, or where the person was never properly told what they were agreeing to are frequently deleted. A caution that no longer exists on the PNC cannot appear on a certificate. See police caution removal.
2. Police “additional information” can be challenged. If a certificate discloses non-conviction information you consider inaccurate, irrelevant or disproportionate, you can dispute it with the DBS and ask for the Independent Monitor to review it. Timing matters: the dispute must be raised promptly after the certificate issues. See can you appeal a DBS check?
3. Barring is not automatic and can be resisted. If an organisation refers you to the DBS, you will be given the chance to make representations before any decision to include you on the Children’s Barred List, and there is a right of appeal to the Upper Tribunal. Representations made well are the single most effective point of intervention. See DBS barring representations and appeals.

Frequently asked questions

Does the change apply in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland?

England and Wales (section 139) and Northern Ireland (section 140), all from 1 September 2026. Scotland has its own PVG scheme and is unaffected.

I already have an Enhanced DBS certificate. Do I need a new one?

If your existing certificate does not include Children’s Barred List information and your role is now regulated activity, your organisation is likely to want a new check with barred list information. If you are subscribed to the Update Service, a new check may not be needed, but only if your existing certificate is of the same level and type as the role now requires — a certificate without barred list information cannot be “upgraded” through the Update Service.

Do all volunteers now need an Enhanced check with barred list?

No. Only those whose activity meets the frequency test or period condition (or involves personal or health care). Occasional helpers remain outside regulated activity, though organisations may still choose to obtain a standard Enhanced check where the role is otherwise eligible.

Can I still volunteer while my check is pending?

There is no legal rule requiring you to be stood down while a check is awaited. That is a decision for the organisation under its own safeguarding policy. Schools have a separate DfE service for checking a teacher’s record which can be used in the interim in some circumstances.

I accepted a caution years ago. Will it definitely show?

Not necessarily. Adult simple cautions for non-specified offences are filtered from standard and Enhanced certificates after six years; youth cautions, reprimands and warnings are no longer disclosed at all. Cautions for specified offences (which include most violent and sexual offences and some others) are never filtered, and conditional cautions are disclosed while unspent. Even a caution that would be disclosed can be removed altogether if the police agree to delete it, which is why it is worth taking advice before the check is applied for rather than after the certificate has been seen.

Need advice?

We advise people across England, Wales and Northern Ireland on caution and record deletion, disputing Enhanced DBS disclosures, and representations and appeals against barring. If the removal of the supervision exemption means you are facing a check you were not expecting, contact us for a confidential discussion.

This article is general information about the law of England, Wales and Northern Ireland as at 17 September 2026 and is not legal advice on any individual case. Sources: Crime and Policing Act 2026, s.139; Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006, Sch 4; DBS: change to the definition of regulated activity with children; DBS: myth-busting the September 2026 changes; DfE: removal of the supervision exemption; DBS: fee reductions from 5 October 2026.