Teacher Clears Son’s Acquitted Case from Her Enhanced DBS Certificate
The Situation:
What Our Client Was Facing
Our client was a teacher with a clean record. She had never been arrested, never been investigated, and never had any contact with the police. The problem on her Enhanced DBS certificate was not hers at all.
Her son, who lived with her, had been prosecuted for an offence and acquitted. The case was over and he had been found not guilty. The information, however, remained on police systems, linked to the household. When our client applied for a new teaching post and an Enhanced DBS check was run, the police took the view that her son’s case was relevant to her suitability for the role, and disclosed it on her certificate.
As our guide on relevant police information on Enhanced DBS certificates explains, the police can in limited circumstances disclose information about third parties, including family members, where they consider it relevant to the applicant. Teaching is particularly exposed to this, because the safeguarding context makes the police more willing to treat household information as relevant.
The consequences were serious. She was in the middle of a recruitment process, and a certificate carrying her son’s case put the post at risk. It also meant the same information could follow her through every future check in her career, for something she had not done, and for which her son had been acquitted.
NEED HELP WITH THIRD-PARTY INFORMATION ON YOUR ENHANCED DBS CERTIFICATE?
Our Approach:
How We Challenged the Caution
We challenged the disclosure through the police. As our guide on how to challenge information on an Enhanced DBS certificate explains, the police must be satisfied that disclosure is relevant and proportionate. Our representations addressed both tests.
- We addressed relevance directly: The information did not concern our client’s conduct. She had done nothing, been accused of nothing, and been investigated for nothing. Another person’s case was being treated as evidence of her unsuitability, without any proper foundation.
- We relied on the acquittal: Her son had been tried and found not guilty. Disclosing the case as though it remained a live concern disregarded the outcome the criminal justice system had reached.
- We addressed the household connection: Living at the same address is not a safeguarding risk. There was no evidence of any way in which her son’s case bore on her work with children.
- We set out the impact: The disclosure put her recruitment at risk and would repeat on every future check. That was a career-level consequence for a teacher with an unblemished record, based on someone else’s acquitted case.
The police initially maintained the disclosure. We pressed the challenge to appeal, where the tests were applied properly to the facts.
The Outcome:
How We Helped
On appeal, the information was removed and a clean certificate was issued.
Our client took up the teaching post. The recruitment survived the process, and her certificate no longer carried her son’s case into every future check.
Her record now reflects the position as it always should have been: she has none.
Words From Those We’ve Helped.
Discover why clients in the UK and around the world continue to place their trust in us.
Why This Case Mattered — and What Others Can Learn
This case shows that you do not need a police record of your own to have an Enhanced DBS problem. Information about a family member, including a case that ended in acquittal, can be disclosed on your certificate where the police consider it relevant. Teachers are particularly exposed because of the safeguarding sensitivity of the role.
It also shows that an initial refusal is not the end. The police maintained the disclosure at first, and it was removed on appeal. These challenges have stages, and cases are regularly won at the later ones.
If information has been disclosed on your Enhanced DBS certificate, whether about your own history or someone else’s, Legisia’s Enhanced DBS Certificate Appeals service can assess whether there is a realistic basis to challenge it.
Can information about a family member appear on my Enhanced DBS certificate?
Yes, in limited circumstances. The police can disclose third-party information where they consider it relevant to your suitability for the role, even where the family member was acquitted. That judgement can be challenged on relevance and proportionality grounds.
Does an acquittal stop a case being disclosed on a DBS certificate?
Not automatically. Police records of the case can survive an acquittal and can be considered for disclosure. But the acquittal is a powerful argument against disclosure, particularly where the case belongs to someone other than the applicant.
Explore real stories of individuals just like you who turned to us at pivotal moments and how our timely legal intervention helped protect their future, dignity, and livelihood.
