The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS), which processes criminal records checks, paid out £169,000 in compensation last year, compared to just £80,000 in the previous 12 months.

Payments can be made to people if the delay in issuing their certificate is too long and interferes with them starting a new job, or if something incorrect is disclosed on their record.

The vast majority or payments are made for delays with the biggest payouts in the last two years being £17,715 for a 12-week hold-up and £14,720 for a delay of four months.

A spokesperson for DBS said: “DBS checks are an important part of the overall safeguarding process. The average turn around time for disclosure applications is 15.3 days and 94.3% of applications are issued within 8 weeks, as of December 2015.

“We process over 4 million applications a year and on rare occasions some of our customers may not receive the level of service they should expect. DBS offer redress payments in such instances, where appropriate, each claim is considered on a case by case basis.

“We aim to deliver the highest levels of accuracy in all our work to protect vulnerable children and adults, however we also recognise the potential impact to individual customers should we not deliver the service they expect.”

Source: The Mirror

DBS and Police Caution Appeals

If you have been issued with a police caution then we are able to help. You may be finding that a caution is having a more serious impact on your life than you were led to believe it would have.

You may have only admitted an offence to avoid going to Court or you were told it was just a slap on the wrists. If you have received a police caution and would like to discuss getting it removed (expunged) from the police national computer (PNC) then please get in touch.

We can also assist if you are on the barred list or need to appeal a DBS certificate.

Dozens of Doncaster taxi drivers have been prevented from working due to delays in the council’s licensing checks.

Taxi drivers are calling on the council to take urgent action to deal with the backlog in the licensing process.

Significant delays in Scotland Yard’s backlog in criminal record checks leaves many people unable to work, it was claimed today.

The force today admitted it was increasing staff to tackle the “high number” of outstanding cases.

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS), formerly the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB), today said the force’s handling of checks was of “great concern” and hitting workers and employers across London.

People who have been offered jobs in sensitive roles, such as working with children or vulnerable people, are unable to start work until enhanced DBS checks are completed. The Met average waiting time for an enhanced DBS certificate has increased to 77 days, from 75.

Enhanced checks are passed by the DBS, part of the Home Office, to the relevant police force on employers’ behalf. The DBS said: “The delay in processing DBS checks by the Met is of great concern to us and our customers. The Met has informed us their recovery plan includes recruiting, training and transferring additional staff. We are told turn-around times will reduce as a result and are monitoring this situation closely.”

Scotland Yard said: “DBS checks are not simple administrative work … These decisions directly impact children and vulnerable adults and those who seek to work with them. For this reason, staff require significant specialist training and supervision.

“Existing staff are working incredibly hard and have implemented an additional evening shift. We have recruited both police staff and agency staff to the DBS team and now have a total of 145 production staff against a target of 121. We have plans to place 56 non-frontline police officers within the DBS team on a short-term basis until May 2016.”

Source: London Evening Standard

Police Caution Removal Solicitors

If you have been issued with a police caution then we are able to help. You may be finding that the caution is having a more serious impact on your life than you were led to believe it would have.

You may have only admitted the offence to avoid going to Court or that you were told it was just a slap on the wrists.

If you have received a police caution and would like to discuss getting it removed then please get in touch.

We can also assist if you are on the barred list or need to appeal a DBS certificate.