Manual DBS Certificates: What are they and how do they affect your licence application?

When applying for a taxi, hackney or private hire badge in the UK an Enhanced DBS Check is required as part of the application. When the DBS Check is completed a physical paper certificate is posted to the applicant. This DBS Certificate contains the record of the applicant's criminal record history. This certificate needs to be viewed by the licensing team at the local authority issuing a driver's badge.  

Normally, the Disclosure and Barring Service’s (DBS) systems can automatically generate a printable version of the certificate. Notification of this certificate being produced would then be sent through to our system, updating us with the confirmed result. We then send a notification through to the driver in question to let them know their DBS Check had been completed and the certificate is on its way.  

Due to recent changes brought in by the UK Government, this is no longer possible for some candidates. Earlier this year, new ‘filtering’ guidance was introduced. Certain convictions are filtered after a certain amount of time. Under the new guidance, some of the rules relating to some convictions have changed meaning they are filtered sooner than they used to be.  

This new guidance makes it illegal for the DBS to disclose certain convictions on a certificate. The current system for generating the certificates cannot yet account for the new filtering rules.   

If all certificates were produced in the usual way, some would be in breach of the new filtering rules. This would mean they display criminal offences which should not be there. This could potentially hinder the opportunity for the applicant to get their taxi, hackney or private hire badge.   

To prevent this, a small number of individuals (around 1%) DBS certificates are now needed to be produced manually. This will mean any convictions that shouldn’t be showing on a certificate won’t be shown. The 1% accounts for every individual in the country applying for a DBS Check, the figure for those in that taxi and private hire trade will be significantly less than this.  

What Does This Mean for Drivers?    

In terms of the DBS certificate, not much has changed. Applicants are still posted their DBS certificate once the check has been completed. This contains evidence of any criminal record information appropriate to be disclosed, based on the level of check applied for.   

For manually produced certificates, notifications are not sent directly through to our system automatically when the check is complete. The Disclosure and Barring Service contact us with the necessary certificate information. This information is then added to our system manually.   

Once the information has been added and verified, we will issue an amended version of our completion confirmation email to the licensing manager associated with your application. This email will confirm that the certificate is on its way and whether ‘the certificate contains no information’ or ‘wait to view the applicant's certificate’.    

This does mean there is a possibility that you may receive your DBS certificate before we have notified you that it is complete. However, as this only affects 1% of all electronic submissions, it is not a common issue.   

When tracking applications of this type they may appear as withdrawn by the DBS on their tracking website. If this is the case, please don’t worry! This is because the DBS system cannot provide the correct info regarding manual certificates straightaway. The DBS currently must update this information manually so there can be delays.   

The main issue for drivers is that manually issued DBS certificates cannot be used to sign up to the DBS Update Service. The DBS are currently working on a process for roles where a subscription to the Update Service is mandatory, like taxi and private hire licensing.   

If you have a manually issued DBS certificate, we advise discussing the situation with the licensing team issuing your badge. TaxiPlus have no control over the issue of manually issued certificates.  

How Long Will This Last?   

The DBS are working on a technical solution to avoid issuing manual certificates but are not able to supply a timescale. This issue has arisen because legislation is changing faster than the technology supporting it. The DBS have expressed their desire to rectify the situation as soon as possible and we will endeavour to keep our customers updated as well.   

The DBS have confirmed that they are working overtime to try and get this issue resolved but it will likely continue throughout September. Personnel Checks understand how frustrating this is for those affected. We are trying our best to provide the most up to date available to us. Unfortunately, we are unable to physically speed checks up that are going through this process.

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