DBS Check: Levels, Fees, Eligibility & Filtering (UK)

A DBS check is a criminal record check run by the Disclosure and Barring Service for employers, volunteers, and certain self-employed roles in England and Wales. There are four levels, each showing different information, and the level you need depends on the role, not your preference.

This overview covers all four levels. Deeper guides cover the Basic DBS check, the Enhanced DBS check, the DBS Update Service, and how long a DBS check takes.

What Is a DBS Check?

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) is the public body that runs criminal record checks for employers, voluntary organisations, and registered bodies in England and Wales. A DBS check produces a certificate showing some or all of a person's criminal record, depending on the level requested. It exists to help employers make safer recruitment decisions, particularly for roles that involve trust, vulnerable people, or children.

Which level applies to you is set by the role, not by choice. An employer or organisation decides what level a position is legally eligible for, and a person cannot request a higher level than the role qualifies for simply because they want extra reassurance for themselves or a client. This eligibility gate is a legal requirement, not an administrative preference.

The Four DBS Check Levels and Fees

Fees below took effect on 2 December 2024 and remain current.

Basic DBS Check: Who Can Apply

A Basic check is the only level a person can apply for entirely on their own, for any reason, without going through an employer. It shows unspent convictions and unspent conditional cautions only; nothing that has already become spent under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 appears. Anyone aged 16 or over can apply, whether or not they are applying for a job. The fee is £21.50, and it is not free for volunteers, unlike Standard and Enhanced.

Because it only shows unspent record, a Basic check gives a limited picture. It is commonly used for general employment checks, some visa and licensing applications, and by individuals who simply want to see what a Basic-level check would show about themselves.

Standard DBS Check: Employer-Requested Only

A Standard check cannot be requested by an individual for themselves. Only an employer or a registered body can apply for one, and only for a role that is listed in the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975, which sets out which jobs are legally allowed to ask about spent convictions. It shows both spent and unspent convictions and cautions, subject to the filtering rules described below, so genuinely old and minor matters are not automatically disclosed forever. The fee is £21.50, and it is free where the applicant is a genuine volunteer.

A person cannot lawfully obtain a Standard check for a role that is not on the eligible list, and no organisation should be asked to request one outside that gate.

Enhanced DBS Check: Police Information Included

An Enhanced check contains everything a Standard check shows, plus any information a local police force holds and considers relevant to the specific role, even if it did not lead to a conviction. Like Standard, it is role-gated: an employer or registered body must request it for an eligible position. The fee is £49.50, free for genuine volunteers.

From 21 January 2026, this level opened up slightly beyond the traditional employer route. It is now down to the self-employed person or personal employee, not the person who hires them, to apply for their own Enhanced check. A personal employee is someone employed directly by a private individual, rather than an agency or company, to provide a service to that individual or their family, such as a carer. This applies to the Enhanced check and the Enhanced check with barred list(s) alike, applied for through a registered umbrella body; the private individual who hires them, the personal employer, cannot apply on their behalf. The role and eligibility rules still apply; this change affects who can submit the application, not what roles qualify.

Enhanced Check With Barred List Checks

The highest level, Enhanced with barred list(s), adds a check against the DBS's barred lists on top of everything an ordinary Enhanced check covers. The DBS maintains two separate barred lists, one for children and one for adults at risk, and a person included on the relevant list must not work in that "regulated activity" at all. This level is reserved for roles that meet the legal definition of regulated activity, most commonly close, ongoing, unsupervised work with children or vulnerable adults. The fee is £49.50, the same as a standard Enhanced check, and it is free for genuine volunteers. From 21 January 2026, eligible self-employed workers and personal employees can also apply for their own Enhanced check with barred list(s) through a registered umbrella body on the same basis as the ordinary Enhanced check; the private individual who hires them cannot apply for them.

Filtering: What Doesn't Show on a Standard or Enhanced Check

Filtering decides which spent convictions and cautions are treated as "protected" and left off a Standard or Enhanced certificate. Filtering is separate from a conviction simply becoming spent; a spent conviction can still appear on these checks unless it is also filtered. Under the rules current since 28 October 2023, an adult non-specified caution filters after 6 years, an adult non-specified conviction filters after 11 years, and a youth non-specified conviction filters after 5.5 years. Youth cautions, reprimands and warnings filter immediately.

Filtering never applies to specified serious, violent, sexual or safeguarding offences, or to any conviction that resulted in a custodial sentence, however short and however long ago. Those always remain visible on a Standard or Enhanced check for as long as the record exists. A 2020 reform also removed the old rule that any second conviction, whatever it was for, could never be filtered.

The DBS Update Service

The Update Service lets someone keep a single Standard or Enhanced certificate current instead of applying for a brand new one every time a different organisation needs to check them. It costs £16 a year, free for genuine volunteers, and only works with Standard and Enhanced certificates, not Basic. Once subscribed, an employer can check the certificate's status online with the applicant's consent, seeing whether anything has changed since it was issued, rather than starting the process again.

It is most useful for people who move between similar roles often, such as agency or supply staff, since it can remove the need to wait for a fresh certificate each time a new employer takes them on.

Which Level Do I Need?

The level required for a role is a legal question, not a preference, and it is set by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 and the regulated activity definition, not by what an employer or applicant would like to see. Asking for, or providing, a higher level than a role is legally entitled to is not permitted. A fuller walkthrough of how to work out which of the UK's disclosure systems and levels applies to a given role, including for the growing range of self-employed and personal-employee situations, is covered on the which criminal record check do I need guide.

DBS Checks in Scotland and Northern Ireland

A DBS certificate is an England and Wales product only. Scotland runs its own system through Disclosure Scotland, using Level 1 and Level 2 disclosures alongside the PVG scheme for regulated roles with children or protected adults, not the DBS's Basic/Standard/Enhanced structure at all. See the Disclosure Scotland and PVG guide for that system's levels and fees.

Northern Ireland has its own equivalent, AccessNI, with its own Basic, Standard and Enhanced products, its own fees, and its own filtering periods under different legislation. See the AccessNI check guide. None of these three systems' certificates are interchangeable; a DBS certificate does not substitute for a PVG or AccessNI check, and vice versa.

Spent Convictions and Your DBS Check

Whether a conviction is spent, and after how long, is governed by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 as reformed in 2023 for England and Wales, and spent status is what a Basic check relies on. Filtering, covered above, is a separate and narrower question of what a Standard or Enhanced check is allowed to show even once something is spent. For the full rehabilitation periods by sentence type, see the spent convictions guide.

This article is for general information only and is not legal advice. Whether a particular role qualifies for a Standard or Enhanced DBS check, and at what level, depends on its specific legal status, so anyone unsure should check with the employer, registered body, or the DBS itself rather than relying on this page alone. For the wider picture of UK data protection and disclosure rules, see the UK Data Privacy hub and the United Kingdom hub.