A Standard Disclosure and Barring Service Certificate (formerly CRB) is required for a variety of jobs and professions, such as those working in the law (solicitors, barrister, legal executives) or those working in finance.

If you are required to provide a standard DBS certificate for your work then certain information will be disclosed on your certificate related to your past criminal record unless it has been filtered under the DBS filtering rules. Arrest records or unproven allegations will not appear on a Standard DBS certificate – such information can however appear on an Enhanced DBS check – typically you would require an enhanced DBS certificate if you work with children or vulnerable adults. For information on Regulated Activity with Children please visit here: Regulated Activity with Children

Below are the circumstances where past criminal records will show on a Standard DBS certificate:

  • cautions relating to an offence from a list agreed by Parliament – namely offences on the prescribed list such as ABH, child cruelty, sexual assault etc. if you receive a police caution for a proscribed list offence it will always be disclosed and will never become “protected”.
  • Adult cautions given less than 6 years ago (unless they are proscribed list offences as above and will always be disclosed)
  • Youth cautions given less than 2 years ago (unless they are proscribed list offences as above and will always be disclosed) N.B. 2019 edit, Disclosure with respect to youth reprimands/warnings/cautions are subject to revision by the government.
  • 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”.
  • convictions relating to an offence from the prescribed list
  • where the individual has more than one conviction all convictions will be included on the certificate, namely no conviction will be filtered (NB: 2019 edit this rule is subject to revision by the government)
  • convictions that resulted in a custodial sentence (regardless of whether served – namely a suspended sentence of imprisonment would be caught by this rule)
  • convictions which did not result in a custodial sentence, given less than 11 years ago (where someone is 18 or over at the time of the conviction)
  • convictions which did not result in a custodial sentence, given less than 5.5 years ago (where someone is under 18 at the time of the conviction)

Police Caution Removal Solicitor

If you have received a police caution and are worried that it will affect your career or your immigration prospects, then please get in touch.

We have extensive experience of expunging (deleting) police cautions from the Police National Computer (PNC).

Along with applying for the deletion of police cautions, we also have extensive experience of applying for the removal of PNC arrest records and the early deletion of biometric (Fingerprints and DNA) data. For more information on the early deletion of police records, please visit here: Record Deletion Process.

Arrest Records & Biometrics Deletion – DBS Barred List Solicitors

Along with removing police cautions, arrest records and biometrics – we also have specialist experience in contesting the disclosure of information on Enhanced DBS certificate and resisting DBS applications to place people on the children and adults bared list.

Specialist DSB Solicitors

If you have any police caution, arrest record or DBS related enquiry we can assist – please get in touch to discuss your case.

We also provide advice to employers in respect of their safeguarding obligations and their entitlements to ask questions in respect of employees’ past criminal records.