Medical Student Clears Community Resolution from Enhanced DBS Certificate
The Situation:
What Our Client Was Facing
Our client was a young man who had just finished his A-levels and was preparing to start medical school. That summer, a standard family dispute at home escalated, and he assaulted his sister. The assault itself was fairly minor, but his sister ran from the house and, encouraged by a friend’s mother, called the police from the friend’s home. She later regretted making the call — but by then, the process was in motion.
We first acted for him at the police station stage. The police originally intended to offer him a caution. We persuaded them to deal with the matter by community resolution instead — a significantly lower-level outcome, which is not recorded on the Police National Computer. At the time, that intervention protected his future in exactly the way it was meant to.
Then came his first year at medical school, and with it the Enhanced DBS check his course required. The community resolution — held on local police records — was disclosed on his certificate. As our guide on community resolutions and Enhanced DBS checks explains, a community resolution is not a conviction or a caution, but it can still appear on an Enhanced certificate through local police records.
The stakes could hardly have been higher. With the disclosure on his certificate, he stood to lose his place at medical school before his career had even begun.
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Our Approach:
How We Challenged the Caution
The certificate had been issued, so 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 both relevant and proportionate — and a low-level family matter, disclosed against a first-year medical student, put both tests under real strain.
- We questioned the incident itself: This was a minor assault in the course of an ordinary family dispute, escalated by a call his sister later regretted making. It was a family matter that the family itself had long since resolved.
- We set out his youth and circumstances: He had only just left school. It was his first and only contact with the police, and there were mental health difficulties at the time which he had since addressed.
- We showed the incident said nothing about his suitability for medicine: A one-off domestic incident between siblings had no bearing on his fitness to work with patients.
- We put the impact front and centre: Disclosure threatened to cost him his place at medical school — a consequence out of all proportion to a resolution specifically designed to keep a minor matter out of the criminal justice system.
The community resolution had been the right outcome at the time — a proportionate way of closing a minor family matter. Our argument was that disclosing it years into the future, with career-ending consequences, defeated the very purpose of dealing with it that way.
The Outcome:
How We Helped
The disclosure was removed at the first review, two weeks after we lodged the challenge. A clean certificate was issued.
For our client, the result secured his place at medical school. The check his course required no longer carried the one entry that could have ended his medical career before it started.
A family argument from the summer after his A-levels was finally left where it belonged — in the past.
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Why This Case Mattered — and What Others Can Learn
This case shows how a community resolution — often presented as the informal, consequence-free way of resolving a minor matter — can resurface on an Enhanced DBS check at the worst possible moment. Many people accept one without ever being told it can be disclosed.
It also shows the value of getting advice early, at the police station stage. Because we persuaded the police to deal with the matter by community resolution rather than a caution, there was nothing on the Police National Computer — which made the later challenge far more winnable. The level of outcome you accept at the police station shapes everything that follows.
If a community resolution has appeared on your Enhanced DBS certificate, Legisia’s Enhanced DBS Certificate Appeals service can assess whether there is a realistic basis to challenge it.
Can a community resolution show on an Enhanced DBS check?
Yes. A community resolution is recorded on local police records and can be disclosed as relevant police information where the police consider it relevant and proportionate — even though it is not a conviction or a caution.
Is a community resolution better than a caution for my future?
Generally, yes. A community resolution is a lower-level outcome and is not recorded on the Police National Computer, which significantly limits its long-term consequences. But as this case shows, it can still be disclosed on an Enhanced DBS check — so it is not consequence-free.
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.
