Legal News

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) is a public body that oversees regulated activity with children and vulnerable adults. Many people will be familiar with the DBS and some may have been required to have a DBS check as part of employment. There are many professions which require an employee to undergo a DBS check including doctors, nurses, teachers, those working in the care sector, and many others will be mandated to provide a positive DBS check in order to work in that sector.

These decisions therefore also crossover with issues arising from professional regulatory issues involving regulatory bodies such as the Teachers’ Regulation Authority and the General Medical Council.

The DBS keeps a record of those who are barred from working in a regulated activity with children or adults. Being included on one of these lists can mean that you lose your job and will be barred from working in regulated activity with the group you have been barred from working with. In some cases, where a person has worked in a particular sector for a long time, this can result in an inability to secure future employment as all experience is in one particular area.

If you have been included on one or both of the DBS barred lists, it is important to seek legal advice as soon as possible as you may be able to appeal the decision.

A decision to include someone on the barred lists could be an infringement of the right to private and family life as protected by Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights. Accordingly, it is important that the DBS acts proportionality when making decisions given the implications they can have on an individual’s ability to work in their chosen profession or career.


Can I appeal?

Any person who has been included on one or both of the barred lists can appeal this decision to the Administrative Appeal’s Chambers of the Upper Tribunal. In mounting an appeal, it is necessary to establish that the DBS has:

1. Made an error of fact; or


2. Made an error of law

Cases are most often appealed when a person has been accused of a crime and the Crime Prosecution Service (CPS) has decided not to proceed with a prosecution or where the individual has been acquitted of the offence when tried in court. In each instance, the DBS is nonetheless entitled to make their own findings of fact to determine whether ‘relevant conduct’ has occurred within the meaning of the legislation when deciding whether any person should be prevented from working with children or vulnerable adults.

If there are disputes as to the events which led to the decision to include a person on one or both of the barred lists, the Upper Tribunal is able to make its own findings of fact thus providing any aggrieved person facing expulsion from regulated work to have access to a fair hearing before an independent tribunal.


If you have been affected by a decision of the DBS to include you on one or both of the barred lists, our public law team has the experience in handling appeals to the Upper Tribunal and will be able to assist.

Contact public law solicitor Angela Sandhal on 0113 487 3901 or at angelasa@duncanlewis.com.

Contact public law trainee solicitor Ben McGuckin on 0191 206 4788 or at benm@duncanlewis.com.