DBS Update Service: £16 Fee, Join Deadlines and How It Works

The DBS Update Service costs £16 a year, or is free for a genuine volunteer, and lets a Standard or Enhanced DBS certificate be reused and checked online by a new employer instead of applying for an entirely fresh certificate every time. It only works with Standard and Enhanced certificates, and only if the applicant joins within one of two specific windows described below.

What the Update Service Actually Solves

Without the Update Service, a Standard or Enhanced DBS certificate is a one-time snapshot. Every time a new employer, agency, or organisation needs to check someone's record, that person has to apply for a brand new certificate from scratch, even if an existing one is only weeks old. For anyone who moves between similar roles often, such as agency staff, supply teachers, or care workers picking up shifts with different providers, that means repeating the same application, the same fee, and the same wait, over and over.

The Update Service changes that by attaching a subscription to the certificate itself. Once subscribed, a new employer can check the certificate's current status online, with the applicant's consent, and see whether anything has changed since it was issued, instead of forcing a new application. It does not extend a certificate or change what it shows; it makes an existing certificate checkable on an ongoing basis, for as long as the subscription stays active and the certificate remains eligible for reuse.

Cost and Who Gets It Free

A subscription costs £16 a year (current as of August 2026), and it is free if the applicant is a genuine volunteer. DBS's definition of a genuine volunteer for this purpose is specific and all conditions must be met: the person is not paid for the role beyond approved travel or other out-of-pocket expenses, does not benefit financially from doing it, is not on a work placement, is not a trainee studying toward a qualification that leads to a full-time role in that line of work, and is not a paid foster carer or kinship carer, or a member of that carer's household.

A certificate obtained for a paid position cannot be added to a free volunteer subscription. It is possible to add a volunteer certificate to a paid account, but moving from a volunteer role into a paid one on the same certificate means starting over: a brand new DBS check, a new registration, and the £16 fee.

Which Certificates Can Join

Only Standard and Enhanced certificates, including Enhanced with barred list(s), can join the Update Service. A Basic certificate cannot be added at all, under any circumstances. Someone who only holds a Basic check and wants an online way to demonstrate their record instead registers for a DBS "online services account," a separate product that is not the Update Service and works differently. For more on what each check level shows and who can apply for it, see the DBS check overview.

The Two Ways to Join, and Their Different Deadlines

There are two separate join routes, and they run on two different clocks. Confusing them is a common mistake, so treat them as entirely distinct processes rather than variations on one deadline.

The first route is the more familiar one: once a certificate is issued, the applicant has 30 days from its issue date to join using the certificate number. Miss that window and there is no grace period; the only way back in is a completely new DBS check.

The second route lets someone join before their certificate even exists, using the reference number from their DBS application form itself. In this case the 28-day clock does not run from when the application was submitted; it runs from the date the applicant joins the Update Service with that reference, and the requirement is that DBS must receive the underlying application within those 28 days. When the certificate is later issued, DBS adds it to the Update Service account automatically. If that DBS application is subsequently withdrawn, the Update Service subscription is cancelled and refunded within 31 days.

Renewing Your Subscription

A subscription runs for one year, and the next year's subscription starts the day after the current one expires. There are two ways to keep it running.

With automatic renewal, chosen when the applicant first signs up, DBS emails a reminder each year when the fee is due and attempts to take the £16 from the saved card. If that payment fails, DBS emails again and retries; if it still fails, the subscription is cancelled and the applicant must apply for a new DBS check and register again.

With manual renewal, DBS sends an email reminder 30 calendar days before the subscription is due, and follows up with a paper letter if it has not been renewed by 14 days before expiry. Renewal has to happen inside that 30-day window; it cannot be done on the last day. A volunteer's free subscription still renews annually on the same reminder cycle, and DBS cancels it if the volunteer does not actively confirm.

Either way, a lapsed subscription cannot simply be caught up later. Missing the deadline cancels it, and the only route back is a new DBS check from the start, followed by a fresh registration.

What an Employer Sees When They Run a Status Check

An organisation can only use the Update Service to check someone's status if all four of the following hold: it could have legally requested that level of DBS check for the role in the first place, it has the applicant's permission, it has seen the applicant's original certificate in person (though not again for every later check), and it has checked the applicant's identity. Given those, no payment or registration is needed on the employer's side, and the result comes back straight away.

The applicant controls consent throughout and can withdraw it at any time simply by telling the employer. An employer that keeps running checks after consent has been withdrawn is accessing data it is no longer entitled to see.

Behind the scenes, DBS checks criminal record conviction and barring information weekly, and, for Enhanced checks, local police information roughly every nine months. Police information appears on relatively few certificates and changes infrequently, which is part of why that check runs on a longer cycle than the criminal record check.

Portability: When the Same Certificate Still Works

A subscribed certificate carries over from one role to the next, with three exceptions: an organisation specifically asks for a new certificate anyway, the new role needs a different "workforce" type (for example, an adult workforce certificate will not cover a role that needs a child workforce certificate), or it needs a different check level (for example, moving from a Standard-eligible role to one that requires Enhanced). Same workforce and same level is what keeps a certificate reusable; change either one and a new DBS check is needed regardless of the subscription.

When It Might Not Be Worth Subscribing

The Update Service is built for people who expect to reuse a certificate. It is less useful, and sometimes not worth the fee, in a few situations: a one-off or short-term role where the certificate will never be checked again, a next role that is likely to need a different workforce type or check level (since portability will not apply anyway), an upcoming legal name change (which means applying for an entirely new DBS check through the employing organisation, since the account name cannot be changed, and DBS recommends starting a fresh subscription under the new name), or an organisation that simply does not accept Update Service status checks and insists on a fresh DBS check regardless, which is a policy some organisations set for themselves rather than a DBS rule.

Cancelling, Refunds, and Removing a Certificate

The subscription can be cancelled at any time by signing in and selecting "cancel subscription." Removing a certificate from the account is a separate action and does not by itself cancel the subscription.

The refund rule is narrow: DBS will not refund the annual subscription fee unless a renewal payment was made and then cancelled before that renewal's due date. In practice, that means the first year's £16 is never refundable once paid; only a later renewal payment can be, and only if it is cancelled before it comes due. This is separate from the refund that applies if the underlying DBS application itself is withdrawn, which does get the Update Service fee refunded within 31 days.

Removing a certificate from an Update Service account is one-way. Once removed, it cannot be added back, and it cannot be used to start a new account. A legal name change is a bigger step than it first appears. DBS states that someone who changes their name must apply for an entirely new DBS check through the organisation they work for; the name on the subscription account cannot be changed. Adding the new certificate to the old account would leave the certificate showing the previous name, which is why DBS recommends starting a brand-new subscription under the new name instead.

For background on what a Standard or Enhanced certificate can show in the first place, including the filtering rules for old convictions and cautions, see spent convictions and filtering and which criminal record check do I need.

This page covers the DBS Update Service for England and Wales only, based on DBS's own applicant guidance current as of August 2026. It does not cover Disclosure Scotland's PVG scheme or Northern Ireland's AccessNI, which run separate systems with their own rules; see the Disclosure Scotland and PVG guide and the AccessNI check guide. This is general information, not legal advice; anyone unsure whether their certificate qualifies for the Update Service, or whether an employer's status check request is proper, should check directly with DBS or the employer.