DBS Appeal Process

If you are applying for a job that requires an enhanced or standard DBS (formerly CRB) certificate, you may be worried about what will be disclosed.

The certificate will be sent to you, before your prospective employer or regulatory body, so that you have a chance to dispute any of the information that is disclosed by the police.

Appealing a DBS (CRB) Certificate

The police do not always get it right, and you are able to appeal the unfair disclosure of information.

If you wish to appeal a DBS certificate then you will have to lodge your DBS appeal within a specified time frame.

Incorrect or wrongly disclosed information

We have helped many clients appeal “relevant” information disclosed on DBS certificates.

Sometimes the police may have attributed the wrong offence to your DBS certificate or the police may have included facts on your DBS certificate that are incorrect.

On Enhanced DBS certificates the police may sometimes include non-conviction information, such as unproven allegations, which are factually incorrect or unfair.

In these circumstances, and others, we are able to assist in challenging unfairly disclosed relevant information.

Judicial Review and DBS Appeals

In some cases, where the DBS refuse to remove unfavourable information from a certificate, it is possible to appeal to Court.

Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS ) Policy

Previously, the law meant that a great deal of past convictions and cautions were automatically disclosed on a DBS (or CRB as it was then known) certificate. However due to the significant unfairness that this caused to many people, the law was altered.

The government, in drafting a disclosure regime, had to undertake a careful balancing exercise between the right to a private life and the need for rehabilitation, against the broader public interest to protect society from potentially dangerous people. This was not an easy exercise to undertake, given the multitude of conflicting interests, and the huge variety of individual circumstances. As a result, due to the complexity of the issues involved, the DBS disclosure regime can sometimes lead to injustices.

DBS Filtering Rules

On standard DBS checks, most cautions will come off after 6 years, and many types of convictions will come off after 11 years. However those who have:

  •   received prison sentences  (included a suspended one)
  •  or have been convicted or cautioned for an offence on the specified offences list

then their caution or conviction will always be disclosed on both a standard and an enhanced DBS certificate.

NB, November 2020 edit: Youth cautions, warnings and reprimands are immediately  “protected” subsequent to changes implemented by the government. This means that even for offences that appear on the DBS list of unfilterable offences, they will not be automatically be disclosed on an enhanced and standard DBS check. It should be noted however despite the changes, it is still possible for facts related to youth cautions, warnings or reprimands to still be disclosed on an enhanced DBS certificate if the police feel the information is “relevant”. 

DBS Appeals Solicitor

If you feel that your DBS certificate is incorrect or unfair then please get in touch.

We are also able to appeal unfair police cautions and apply for the deletion of arrest records.

DBS Barring Solicitors

Along with challenging enhanced and standard DBS certificates, we are also frequently instructed to challenge or appeal DBS barring decisions.