To request a DBS check for a role, an organisation needs to establish that the position meets the legislative criteria below — eligibility depends on the actual duties of the role, not the job title.

Legislative basis

A role can be checked at the relevant level where it is:

• included in the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975, enabling a Standard-level check;
• prescribed under the Police Act 1997 (Criminal Records) Regulations, enabling an Enhanced-level check;
• involved in regularly caring for, training, supervising, or being solely responsible for people under 18 or vulnerable adults, under section 59 of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 — this is what’s classed as Regulated Activity, and it’s what allows an Enhanced check to include a check of the children’s and/or adults’ barred lists.

The definition of Regulated Activity was narrowed on 10 September 2012. Only roles meeting the current definition qualify for an Enhanced check that includes a barred list check; roles that met the previous, wider definition may still be eligible for an Enhanced check, just without barred list access.

Regulated Activity with children

Regulated Activity with children falls into five categories:

1. Unsupervised activity — teaching, training, instructing, caring for or supervising children; providing advice or guidance on their well-being; or driving a vehicle used only for children.
2. Work at a specified place with the opportunity for contact — schools and academies, pupil referral units, nursery schools, child detention institutions, children’s homes, children’s centres (England), and childcare premises/nurseries.
3. Relevant personal care — healthcare delivered by a regulated professional (or under their supervision), or help with washing, dressing, eating, drinking or toileting.
4. Registered childminding and foster care.
5. Moderating public electronic communication aimed primarily at children — where the same person does this once a week or more, or on 4 or more days within a 30-day period.

For categories 1 and 2, the activity needs to happen frequently (once a week or more) or on 4+ days within a 30-day period, be carried out by the same person, and give that person the opportunity for contact with children as part of the role. Day-to-day management or supervision of someone doing (or who would be doing, if unsupervised) Regulated Activity is itself Regulated Activity.

Not Regulated Activity: occasional or temporary voluntary/contracted work (other than teaching, training or supervising children); volunteering under the day-to-day supervision of a Regulated Activity worker; helping supervise a group under another Regulated Activity worker; childcare in a parent’s own home for their own child; and activity that’s infrequent at any single establishment, even if it adds up across several sites.

“Supervision” means day-to-day supervision that’s reasonable in the circumstances to protect the children involved — the Department for Education publishes statutory guidance on what counts as reasonable.

For an Enhanced check to include the children’s barred list, the person must work at the same specified place, at the frequency above, with the opportunity for contact with children (or carrying out unsupervised specified activity at that frequency) — it doesn’t need to be the same child or group each time.

Regulated Activity with adults

For adults, there’s no specified-place requirement and no frequency threshold — a single instance is enough. (The separate “vulnerable adults” definition in section 59 of the 2006 Act was repealed.) The six categories are:

1. Healthcare provided by a regulated health professional, or under their direction or supervision.
2. Personal care — help with (or instruction in) washing, dressing, eating, drinking or toileting.
3. Social work provided by a social care worker as part of health or social services.
4. Financial assistance — helping manage cash, bills or shopping because of age, illness or disability.
5. Managing someone’s affairs under a power of attorney or a Mental Health Act deputyship.
6. Conveying someone to receive healthcare, personal care or social work because of their age, illness or disability (this doesn’t cover friends, family, or taxi drivers doing this in the ordinary course of their trade).

There’s no fixed age threshold for who counts as needing this support — the test is whether someone’s age (or illness or disability) means they can’t do things like their own shopping or getting to a doctor’s appointment without help. Performing just one of the six activities above, once, is enough to qualify for an Enhanced check including the adults’ barred list.

What doesn’t count

Regulated Activity excludes activity within family relationships (close family, or household members who treat each other as family) and personal, non-commercial arrangements between friends or family (no payment, or only a nominal amount, outside a commercial context). An adult, for these purposes, is anyone aged 18 or over. As above, day-to-day management or supervision of a Regulated Activity worker is itself Regulated Activity.

Further guidance

This page summarises the current Home Office guidance on eligibility and Regulated Activity. Since this is an area that has changed before (most recently in 2012), if you’re not sure whether a specific role qualifies, it’s worth checking the official GOV.UK eligibility guidance directly, or contacting us.

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