Foreign crimes and DBS: how convictions outside the UK can impact an enhanced DBS check
15 Apr 2025
The rules on when a criminal conviction in the UK will be disclosed to a potential employer on a DBS check are codified and clear-cut.
There is an established procedure by which the recipient of a DBS check can know, in advance, whether a domestic conviction will be disclosed to an employer. If these rules are misapplied (resulting in the disclosure of information that should not have been) then the applicant has recourse to prevent this from happening. However, this is not necessarily the case for someone with a conviction from another jurisdiction
Below, civil litigation associate Katherine Sorab sets out how the Disclosure and Barring Service engages with foreign criminal convictions and recounts the story of a client who successfully challenged the way DBS handled their case.
How does the DBS system deal with foreign criminal convictions?
Unlike official DBS guidance on domestic convictions, there is little guidance on the circumstances in which foreign convictions will appear on DBS certificates.
DBS states that it cannot access criminal records held overseas. However, there remains an information sharing regime between the UK and EU (EU Framework Decision 2009/315/JHA). Information sharing agreements under INTERPOL protocols also exist.
Our experience working in this area of law suggests that if an offence committed in a foreign jurisdiction has an equivalent in the UK, then that conviction is likely to appear on a DBS certificate where there is an information sharing agreement between the UK and the jurisdiction in question.
However, there does not appear to be a codified approach to this practice.
How to challenge a DBS decision to disclose a foreign criminal conviction
Foreign convictions on DBS certificates can be challenged in the same way as domestic ones. A dispute with DBS can be raised if the conviction information: i) does not relate to the applicant in question; ii) is not accurate; or iii) is incomplete.
Hickman & Rose recently acted for an individual who sought to challenge a DBS decision to disclose a foreign conviction for a minor drug-related offence.
The client – a person with no previous convictions or cautions in the UK – sought an enhanced DBS certificate for a role in the child and vulnerable adult workforce. When the certificate was issued, it included details of a nine-year-old conviction for a drug related offence in Thailand that resulted in a suspended sentence and fine.
On the client’s behalf, we contended that her conviction was unsafe, given that, although the allegation had been denied, she was not only required to sign paperwork in a language she did not understand but also forced to pay a bribe. During the court proceedings moreover, the client had no access to legal representation.
In this case we argued that the information on the DBS certificate was not accurate given that the conviction was unsafe. This is a challenging argument to raise, and not typical for DBS disputes on conviction information. However, we prepared robust representations supported by a powerful character reference setting out the client’s account of events and placing the onus on DBS and the police to establish whether it could lawfully disclose the conviction.
The police ultimately agreed to remove the conviction from the certificate on the grounds that they had doubts as to the conviction’s legitimacy and the client now has the benefit of a clear DBS check.
When to fight a DBS decision to disclose a foreign conviction
UK residents may be convicted of criminal offences while on holiday or living abroad; equally, foreign citizens with criminal convictions may seek to work in jobs requiring DBS checks in the UK.
When deciding whether to challenge DBS disclosure decisions of this nature it is important to consider the seriousness of any foreign offence, where and when it took place and the degree to which due process may have been followed.
The character of the applicant is also an important consideration, as is their readiness to engage in protracted and detailed communication with DBS.
Challenging DBS certificates in these types of cases can be an uphill battle as, often, a client will not have any of the relevant papers or information or be privy to what exactly may have been shared with the UK authorities.
However, with particular facts (as the above example shows), DBS can be persuaded to consider these types of representations, particularly where an individual’s rights to a fair trial and process have not been met in another jurisdiction.
