Method

How the DBS fees, levels and waits are worked out

Every page and every calculator reads the same data files: fees.json for the fees of the three bodies, roles.json for the level of 38 roles, performance.json and police-performance.json for waits. No fee, date or percentage is typed into a page. A script, scripts/update-data.py, re-reads the official pages, compares the amounts with the file and stops with an error when one differs, so a change of fee is never published silently. Official pages were last read on 24 October 2026.

1. Fees in England and Wales

The fees are those of SI 2026/985, in force since 5 October 2026: £20 basic, £20 standard, £41 enhanced with or without barred lists, £15 a year for the Update Service. They match the DBS announcement of 9 September 2026 and the GOV.UK employer page, which adds £6 for the Adult First service. For a date before 5 October 2026, the engine applies the fees of SI 2024/1111 (£21.50, £21.50, £49.50, £16). Volunteers pay nothing for standard and enhanced checks; a basic check is never free.

2. Admin fee and VAT

No official source publishes the admin fees of umbrella bodies in a form we can read: the GOV.UK directory refuses automated reading, and we do not work around it. The calculators therefore take the fee you were quoted. If you say it is quoted before VAT, 20% is added to it, never to the DBS fee, following the disbursement rules of HMRC VAT Notice 700, section 25. Example: an enhanced check with the children's barred list, a £10 admin fee before VAT and one year of Update Service cost £41 + £10 + £2 + £15 = £68.

3. The level of a role

The level is the highest one the DBS eligibility guidance allows, read in its nine documents updated on 1 September 2026. Work with children reaches the children's barred list when a specified activity is done on more than three days in 30 days or overnight between 2am and 6am, or at once for health or personal care; work with adults reaches the adults' barred list from the first episode of a regulated activity. Each of the 38 roles of the finder cites its section. The question-by-question calculator applies the same tests. The result is indicative: the recruiting organisation decides, and the guidance is not legal advice.

4. Scotland and Northern Ireland

Fees come from Disclosure Scotland (£25 Level 1, £25 Level 2, £59 to join the PVG scheme, £18 for an existing member) and AccessNI (£16, £16, £32). A role is mapped to the equivalent product: a barred-list level becomes a PVG application or an AccessNI enhanced check. Scotland's social care waiver applies from 1 August 2026 to 31 July 2027.

5. Update Service or new checks

Without the subscription, every role that asks for a new certificate costs the fee plus the admin fee. With it, the first check is paid once and £15 is added each year. Over three years with one new check a year and a £10 admin fee on an enhanced check: £204 without, £96 with. The rules (30 days to join, standard and enhanced only, free status checks) are those of the Update Service page.

6. Waiting times

National turnaround comes from DBS dataset 1, published on 3 August 2026 for April 2026 to June 2026: certificates sent and the share within target, by level, by month. Average days and the list of delayed police forces come from the DBS police performance report for July 2026. DBS publishes no wait per force in days, so the site says only whether a force was on the delayed list that month. Scotland's figures are those of its quarter one report, AccessNI's those of the week of 19 October 2026.

7. What a certificate shows

The filtering calculator applies the DBS filtering rules for certificates issued from 28 October 2023: adult convictions for non-specified offences drop off after 11 years, youth convictions after 5.5, adult cautions after 6, unless the offence is specified or the sentence was custodial; youth cautions never appear automatically. Whether a conviction is spent depends on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act and is not computed here.

8. Tests

On every build, the engine tests check the fees of each body and date, the volunteer rules, the Update Service sums, the filtering rules and the four-nation comparison, and every page file is checked for its title, description, citable block and FAQ. A failing test stops the build.

9. Sources

Other sources (unofficial relay)

All are Crown copyright under the Open Government Licence v3.0, except the police performance report, a DBS document relayed by Care England, from which only figures are taken. Method version: 2026-10-24. A figure that looks wrong: contact.

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Independent publisher of criminal record check levels, fees and waiting times for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

Fees and data read on · Editorial policy · Contact

DBS fees in force since 5 October 2026 (SI 2026/985), DBS performance data published on 3 August 2026, official pages last read on . Indicative level and cost from the official guidance and fee regulations: the recruiting organisation decides which check a role needs, and this is not legal advice. This is not a DBS or government site.