Transgender Guidance / Sensitive Applications

Modified on Wed, 21 Aug at 5:54 PM

[CF]

A transgender candidate may or may not wish to disclose their gender history to their prospective employer or other institution when filling out the application screening form for a DBS criminal record check.

They, however, must disclose this information to DBS, to ensure they complete a thorough background check.

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) has a specialist team dealing with sensitive applications for transgender candidates and provides a confidential service under the Gender Recognition Act 2004 for all levels of background checks: Basic, Standard and Enhanced.

If the candidate does not wish their previous identity history to be disclosed to the employer/institution and/or revealed on the DBS Certificate, they will only need to provide their current name details on the Verifile online screening form, then later contact the DBS Sensitive Applications Team once the application is submitted to them.

They can be reached by calling +44 (0) 300 106 1452.

Please note: There is an option to leave a voicemail and a member of staff will contact the applicant later.

Or they can email: sensitive@dbs.gov.uk.

The will need to contact either Verifile +44 (0) 1234 339 300 / hello@verifile.co.uk, or the company requesting their checks beforehand, in order to request their DBS application number.

If they are happy for their gender history to be revealed to the employer/institute and disclosed on the DBS certificate, they'll need to add all previous names known from/by into the name change history section of the application form and in this case there is no need to call the DBS Sensitive Applications Team.

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