Loophole allowing dangerous criminals to bypass DBS safeguards to be reviewed by the UK Government

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) process well over 5 million DBS Certificates every year, each containing information regarding people’s criminal records. Employers use this information to make safe recruitment decisions and prevent dangerous individuals from working with children or vulnerable adults. The work the DBS do is vital to safeguarding initiatives across the UK.

However, campaigners have recently brought to light a legal loophole that allows dangerous individuals to potentially bypass these measures. This loophole is as simple as changing one's name by deed poll which costs around £40. By law, people convicted of sex offences or those on the sex offenders’ register must inform the police if they change their name. Failure to do so can lead to a 5-year prison sentence. But campaigners highlight that this puts the onus on the criminal to inform the police. If the individual in question decides to change their name without informing the police, they could potentially disappear and go on to re-offend.

Figures gathered by The Safeguarding Alliance via a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, revealed that over 900 offenders have disappeared from the police’s radar. This figure is concerning enough, let alone the fact that only 16 of the 42 police forces in England and Wales responded to the FOI request. The Safeguarding Alliance and others have been campaigning to have this loophole reviewed.

Thanks to pressure from campaign groups, a government review has now been promised. This is in large part thanks to a clause to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, tabled by Labour MP for Rotherham, Sarah Champion. The clause asks the government to develop solutions for this loophole and received strong cross-party support.

During the debate on the Report stage of the Bill, Sarah said:

“This serious safeguarding loophole leaves sex offenders free to get a new name, a new driving licence and a passport, and then to secure a new disclosure and barring service check, with which they can go on to gain jobs working with children and vulnerable people.’ 

‘Alarmingly, an FOI request by the Safeguarding Alliance found that more than 900 registered sex offenders went missing between 2017 and 2020, and that was with only 16 of the 43 forces responding.” 

Responding for the Government, Minister for Safeguarding, Victoria Atkins MP said:

“I am pleased to advise the House that we are conducting a time-limited review of the enrolled and unenrolled processes for changing names to better understand the scale and nature of the issue, whether current processes are being or could be exploited to facilitate further offending and, if so, how that can be addressed.”

While a review has indeed been welcomed by campaign groups, Champion was quick to point out that a review was not the ‘end goal’. The current loophole undermines the hard work of the DBS and safeguarding professionals whilst putting the most vulnerable of individuals at unnecessary risk. A review will not solve this. Campaign groups will not be satisfied until the government produces actionable measures that can be put in place to close this loophole.

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