Do I have to pay for a DBS check?

If you are a business owner in the UK or someone searching for a job in the United Kingdom, you must have heard about a DBS check. DBS check is short for

Disclosure and Barring Service which is a kind of background check on a person. It is primarily concerned with a person’s criminal history.

A DBS check aims to find out information such as –

• Whether the person has been convicted in the past?
• Whether a person has been issued any warnings by the police?
• It also checks for reprimands and cautions issued by any police department.

It helps to determine a person’s suitability for a particular job; and, is especially

important in certain industries such as educational institutions, hospitals, and more.

Most eligible employers will almost always ask recruits to share their DBS checks. However, there is prevalent confusion regarding who will bear the expense of the check and whether a recruit should ask the potential employer to pay for the DBS check.

Let us look at some of these questions.

Is the DBS check a paid service?

Yes, the DBS check is a paid service. It requires a significant amount of time and effort on the part of the authorities to consult and coordinate with various police departments and fetch data from the Police National Computer to put together a DBS check report.

Hence, they do charge a fee for the same.

The fees for a DBS check (applicable from October, 2019) are –

• Basic DBS Check – £23
• Standard DBS Check – £23
• Enhanced DBS Check – £40

The fee covers all the expenses incurred to conduct the thorough check and issue a DBS check report.

The fees can be paid with a debit card, credit card, Google Pay, or Apple Pay.

Who needs to pay the fee for a DBS check?

Whether you need a basic DBS check or an enhanced DBS check, there is no rule about who needs to pay the fees for the check. Usually, employers pay for the DBS check; especially, large corporations that frequently recruit people.

However, there is no legal bearing on employers to pay for the check. An employer may ask the applicants to submit a DBS check report and pay for the test themselves. Such information is usually mentioned in the job description or communicated to the applicants at the time of application.

Important Note

 Here are some important things you must know about making payment for a DBS check –

• If you are going to bear the expense of the DBS check, then you must make a payment while applying for the DBS check.
• If your employer/organisation will pay for the check, they are given a time of 10 days from the date of submitting your application to make the payment.