DBS Certificates: UK Police and Barring Service Checks from 2002

DBS Certificates issued with Police National Computer information, Adult list, and Child list matches from 2002 to present. The data, produced for an FOI request, is split by Standard and Enhanced check levels and organized by financial year. It includes historical data formerly held by the Criminal Records Bureau, now managed by The Disclosure and Barring Service.

Use Cases

• Analyze trends in criminal record disclosures based on the time series from 2002 to present
• Compare the volume of Standard versus Enhanced background checks based on the described split
• Study the prevalence of matches on safeguarding lists (Adult and Child) based on the described list information
• Assess the impact of organizational change from CRB to DBS based on the historical data inclusion

Strengths

• Longitudinal coverage spanning from 2002 to the present
• Data is split by Standard and Enhanced levels of check, allowing for comparative analysis
• Includes historical data from the predecessor Criminal Records Bureau

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download

Provenance

Source

The Disclosure and Barring Service

Collection Method

Produced for an FOI request

Time Range

2002 to present

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-08 13:31:40.263365; freshness should be verified

Geography

United Kingdom