Since March 2020 the DBS has supported the government's response to the pandemic by providing free-of-charge checks to applicants in health and social care roles related to or impacted by COVID. Discussions between Home Office and the DHSC have concluded that in order to bring our services back into line with wider government policy this service should now come to a close.
The legislation required to bring the COVID Fast and Free Service to an end has been successfully laid in parliament. This legislation will come into force on Thursday 11 May 2023, therefore the final day for receipt of valid COVID Fast and Free applications will be Wednesday 10 May.
From Thursday 11 May Registered Bodies must:
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Only identify applications as being related to voluntary roles in accordance with pre-existing guidance which can be found here
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Only include "COVID" or "Coronavirus" in the Position Applied For field where this terminology forms part of the official job title.
Where employers and Registered Bodies require urgent adult barred list information they should revert to using the pre-existing Adult First service.
