Fire and rescue authorities will be able to carry out a new level of criminal record checks for all employees, helping drive up standards and protect the public and fellow staff, under new plans announced by the government.
Currently staff are only automatically eligible for basic Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks, however, legislation introduced yesterday (24 April 2023) will, when passed, mean all staff will be eligible for more rigorous standard DBS checks. Basic DBS checks only provide information on unspent cautions and unspent convictions, whereas standard DBS checks also provide information on spent convictions, cautions, reprimands and final warnings, subject to filtering rules.
