Issue - meetings

To consider the report on drivers signing up to the DBS update service.

The Licensing and Compliance Manager summarised the report detailing the proposal to mandate all drivers in Uttlesford to sign up to the DBS update service. He said that new Government statutory guidance had been issued in July 2020, which gave licensing authorities two options to ensure risk was effectively managed:

1 – Drivers are required to register with the online DBS Update Service so that Licensing Authorities can do carry out regular status checks using a Home Office function entitled ‘Multiple Status Checks’.

2 – An Enhanced DBS is manually carried out on each driver every 6 months

He recommended that option 1 was approved by Members, as this was deemed best practice. He said the proposals had been sent out for consultation with the Trade and the feedback received  had only been positive. He said this would take three years to roll out, but once everyone was signed up, feedback would be communicated from the Home Office which would alert the Council if a driver was no longer ‘fit and proper’ in the event they had committed a crime.

In response to a question from Councillor Light, the Licensing and Compliance Manager said an enhanced DBS check was currently only carried out every three years on a driver, at the point of renewing their licence. The new system would allow such checks to be carried out every six months, and therefore was deemed safer.

RESOLVED that drivers are required to register with the online DBS Update Service so that Licensing Authorities can carry out regular status checks using a Home Office function entitled ‘Multiple Status Checks’.