Disclosures are a check against the records at a moment in time and additional information could be added any time after the issue date shown on the Certificate. Also, the police will decide whether to release intelligence based on the role and workforce entered on to the form.
Consequently, since 2006 Disclosures have not been portable between employers, although the practice is not specifically banned. Some employers do accept very recent Disclosures, provided they can be verified with the original Registered Body. However, with portability not being endorsed by the DBS (CRB) these employers find that most Registered Bodies will not verify them.
Most employers should have a policy about accepting a Disclosure from another source, however there are associated risks in accepting a document obtained through another employer. There is no guarantee that the identity checking guidelines were followed by the previous Registered Body, to ensure the results were returned accurately.
The DBS have developed an Update Service which an applicant can choose to join. This will allow the applicant to pay an annual fee to join the service and potentially re-use their Certificate in certain circumstances, and produce this to a new employer, to confirm if anything has been added to that document since it’s issue date.
