How we manage applicant DBS data

As a client of Checks Direct, your applicants’ data is important to us and we’re serious about safeguarding it.

Our online DBS system has been reviewed and approved by the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). We’re also accredited by Cyber Essentials, a widely recognised, government-backed scheme for safer internet spaces.

This information intends to help you understand what we do with data for DBS Checks. Further on, there is also advice about the DBS certificate information you may be legally entitled to keep.

How we handle applicant DBS data

To comply with data protection laws, we:

• Only collect personal data we need for our specified purposes.
• Ensure we have sufficient personal data to properly fulfil those purposes.
• Periodically review the data we hold.
• Delete anything we don’t need.

Once we have provided our service to you, and produced the required check, we don’t hold this data for longer than is required.

Our deletion policy for applicant DBS data

For special category data or criminal offence data, it’s particularly important we make sure we collect and keep only the minimum amount of information.

• To comply with the DBS Code of Practice and the Handling of DBS Certificate Information Guidance, we will only keep data for six months following the completion of a check.
• Non-completed checks will be deleted six months after they were created.

How you can keep DBS certificate information

Some organisations may be legally entitled to keep a DBS certificate for longer than six months.

Organisations which are inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) or Ofsted, and those establishments which are inspected by the Care and Social Services Inspectorate for Wales (CSSIW) may be legally entitled to keep the certificate for the purposes of inspection.

If this applies to you, we advise that you download and save any certificates in line with your organisation’s data retention and secure handling policy. You can also keep track of what results you have viewed on our system.

More information

For information about what personal data we collect, how we collect it, and who that information is shared with, please read our Privacy Notice.

You may also find helpful resources on the Information Commissioner’s Office website.