Guidance

Eligibility for Standard DBS Checks

Published 1 September 2026

1. Introduction

This guidance helps you determine if the position you’re recruiting for is eligible only for a Standard DBS Check. The roles listed in this guidance will not ordinarily be eligible for an Enhanced DBS check unless the role also involves carrying out activities covered in the child, adult or other workforce guides.

The workforce entered in the ‘Position applied for field’ on a DBS application should be appropriate to the role, i.e.:

• “Other workforce” – for roles or positions that don’t specifically relate to working with children or vulnerable adults
• “Child workforce” – for roles or positions relating to children
• “Adult workforce” – for roles or positions relating to adults

The guidance has been split into roles that are only eligible ‘on entry’ to a specific profession, and roles that are eligible at any point a suitability decision needs to be made.

2. Roles eligible ‘on entry’ to a profession only

The below roles are eligible for a Standard DBS check on entry to their profession. It is likely that regulatory bodies will require these checks.  Individuals in these professions will not be eligible for a standard DBS check when they move between employers.

• On entry to the profession of barrister in England and Wales only, or solicitor
• On entry to the profession of chartered accountant or certified accountant
• On entry to the profession of veterinary surgeon
• On entry to the profession of actuary
• On entry to the profession of registered foreign lawyer
• On entry to the profession of Chartered Institute of Legal Executive (CILEx) legal executive or other CILEx authorised person
• On entry to the profession of Chartered Management Accountant
• On entry to the profession of Notary Public

3. Judicial and court-based roles

Applications for these roles can be submitted whenever a suitability decision is being made.

• Justices’ clerks, assistants to justices’ clerks and certain specific officers for magistrates’ courts, justices of the peace and local justice areas
• Judges’ clerks, secretaries, and legal secretaries
• Court officers and court contractors who have face to face contact with judges of the Supreme Court, or access to Supreme Court judges’ lodgings as part of their work
• Individuals who have regular access to personal information about an identified or identifiable member of the judiciary as part of their work
• Court officers and court contractors who go to either the Royal Courts of Justice or the Central Criminal Court as part of their work
• Court security officers and tribunal security officers
• Court contractors who have unsupervised access to courthouses, offices and other buildings used in relation to the courts as part of their work
• Contractors, sub-contractors, and anyone working with them, who have unsupervised access to tribunal buildings, offices and other buildings used in relation to tribunals as part of their work
• Individuals who are:
  • court officers who carry out county court warrants
  • High Court enforcement officers
  • Sheriffs, under-sheriffs, and tipstaffs
  • under the authority of court officers who carry out county court warrants, High Court enforcement officers, sheriffs and under-sheriffs or tipstaffs to carry out High Court writs or warrants
  • authorised to carry out writs of sequestration
  • civilian enforcement officers as defined in section 125A of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980
  • authorised to carry out warrants under section 125B(1) of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980 and section 125(2) of the 1980 Act
  • authorised to carry out clamping orders, as defined in paragraph 38(2) of Schedule 5 of the Courts Act 2003(d)
• Court officers and court contractors who carry out the administration and management of funds in court or receive payment following a conviction or order of a magistrates’ court
• Justice system intermediaries

4. Other roles

• Individuals involved in the delivery of electronic monitoring and field services by a contractor for the Probation Service
• Director-level individuals of organisations bidding for public contracts, when requested by the contracting organisation
• Football stewards
• Applying for membership of the Master Locksmiths Association
• Individuals involved in the delivery of electronic monitoring and field services by a contractor for the Probation Service
• Holding a restricted interest in a licensed body under Schedule 13 of the Legal Services Act 2007
• Individuals in any role to do with the running of, or working on the premises of a prison, a remand centre, a removal centre, a short-term holding facility, a detention centre, a Borstal institution or a young offenders institution, and members of boards of visitors
• Any work that relates to providing care services to vulnerable adults, as per sec.59 of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006, where that work means there is also contact with the patients.
  • Some roles in this category can be eligible for an enhanced DBS check. Please check our online eligibility guidance for more information
• Any work that relates to providing health services where that work means there is also contact with the patients.
  • Some roles in this category can be eligible for an enhanced DBS check. Please check our online eligibility guidance for more information.
• National Health Service (NHS) Counter Fraud Authority roles involving the investigation of fraud, corruption or any other illegal activity and security management
• Any work for an adoption service, an adoption support agency, a voluntary adoption agency, a fostering service, or a fostering agency where that work means that there is also contact with the children or access to sensitive or personal information about them
  • This doesn’t include prospective foster or adoptive parents or their household members. Please check our online eligibility guidance for the child workforce for more information
• Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) staff who carry out humane killing of animals
• Traffic officers appointed under section 2 of the Traffic Management Act 2004
• Office of the Public Guardian staff who have access to data relating to children and vulnerable adults
• Authorised search officers appointed by the Home Secretary
• Individuals, and their direct supervisors, who care for, train, supervise or are solely in charge of armed forces cadets aged under 18
• Fire and Rescue Authority employees
• Approved legal services body manager
• A head of finance and administration of a licensed body
• Head of legal practice of a licensed body
• Chartered Institute of Legal Executive (CILEx) approved manager
• Applying for a Security Industry Authority (SIA) licence
• Positions in the financial sector that are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, the Prudential Regulatory Authority or the Bank of England, or organisations acting on their behalf. These are commonly referred to as being an approved person, a senior manager or carrying out a controlled function

Further information can be found on the DBS website. You may find the following page useful:

DBS Eligibility tool 

General enquiries: customerservices@dbs.gov.uk 

Telephone: 0300 020 0190 

Welsh language line: 0300 020 0191 

Relay UK (if you cannot hear or speak on the phone): 18001 then 03000 200 192

Website: www.gov.uk/dbs

See this webpage for more information on how to contact DBS -  Disclosure and Barring Service - GOV.UK