DBS checks for private hire operators, drivers and office staff

Criminal record checks reach into every part of a taxi firm. The council checks you as the operator, it checks every driver, and it expects you to check the people in your office who take bookings and send out cars. This guide sets out which DBS check a private hire operator needs, which ones drivers and office staff need, what each shows, what it costs and what your council will ask to see.

It covers England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland run their own criminal record checks.

Which DBS check does each person in a taxi firm need?

Each role gets a different level of check. The levels come from the DfT's Statutory Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Standards, which every council has to take into account:

If you're already a licensed driver, the Standards say a council doing six-monthly checks on its drivers shouldn't ask you for a separate basic check to hold an operator or vehicle licence, because the enhanced check already covers it. Bristol City Council follows that rule: licensed drivers applying for an operator licence don't need an additional DBS check.

What do basic, standard and enhanced DBS checks show?

A basic DBS check shows unspent convictions and conditional cautions. Each level above it adds more, as the annex to the Statutory Standards sets out:

The national fees on GOV.UK are £20 for a basic check, £20 for a standard check and £41 for an enhanced check, with or without the barred lists. A responsible organisation that processes a basic check for you can add its own admin fee. Councils that process drivers' checks charge more: Bristol charges drivers £64, and TfL charges £56.42, which includes an ID check.

GOV.UK says a basic check takes up to 14 days and an enhanced check usually around 14 days, longer if details are wrong or several police forces are involved. You can't pay to speed one up.

Why can't an operator get an enhanced DBS check?

Because the law only allows enhanced checks for certain roles, and running a booking office isn't one of them. The DBS guide to "other workforce" roles explains that standard and enhanced checks are only available where the role appears in the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 and the Police Act 1997 rules.

For taxis, the Police Act 1997 (Criminal Records) Regulations 2002 cover a council considering someone's suitability for a driver's licence under the Town Police Clauses Act 1847, section 51 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976, or the London Acts. Drivers are eligible for an enhanced check with both barred lists. Operators, office staff and vehicle owners are not, which is why the Statutory Standards say enhanced and barred list checks aren't available for operator licensing and ask for a basic check instead.

A barred list on its own doesn't legally stop someone driving a taxi, the Standards note, because driving a taxi isn't regulated activity. But they tell councils not to license anyone on either list, and all councils in England required the barred list check for drivers on 1 April 2026, according to the DfT's statistics.

What do the Statutory Standards say about booking and dispatch staff?

The Standards treat the person who answers your phone and the person who picks the driver as safeguarding roles. A dispatcher decides which driver to send to a passenger, a position the Standards say could be exploited by someone seeking to harm children or vulnerable adults.

So they ask councils to make these conditions of your operator licence:

1. Keep a register of everyone who takes bookings or dispatches vehicles.
2. Show that you've seen a basic DBS check for each person on the register, and check anyone you add.
3. Make sure the certificate is recently issued when you see it, or use a responsible organisation to request the check for you.
4. Record that you saw the certificate, but don't keep the certificate itself.
5. Write into each person's contract that they must tell you about any conviction while they work in the role.
6. Keep the register for as long as you keep booking records, so the two can be cross-checked. If someone leaves and later rejoins, get a new basic check.
7. Give the council your policy on employing ex-offenders in these roles.

TfL already applies this in London: every private hire operator must keep a register of booking and dispatch staff with a basic DBS check for each person, and send its ex-offender policy with its renewal. The Standards also say you can outsource booking and dispatch but can't pass on the duty to protect children and vulnerable adults, so you must show that your contractor applies comparable checks.

The register sits alongside your booking records, which the Standards say should name the person who took each booking and the person who dispatched the car. Our guide to private hire record keeping covers those fields. Dispatch AI is booking and dispatch software for taxi and private hire firms. It answers your phone, WhatsApp, texts and emails, books the jobs at your prices and sends them to your drivers on your own app.

How do you get a basic DBS check for office staff?

You have two routes, and both cost the same £20 national fee.

1. The staff member applies. Anyone can request their own basic check on GOV.UK and receives the certificate by post. They show it to you, and you record that you've seen it and the date.
2. You request it. Choose a responsible organisation from the DBS list. It runs the check and tells you the outcome, and may charge an admin fee on top. Firms doing more than 1,000 basic checks a year can apply to become a responsible organisation themselves.

GOV.UK adds one rule for any employer that carries out criminal record checks: you must have a policy on employing ex-offenders and show it to any applicant who asks. The Statutory Standards say people with convictions for the offences in their annex, other than driving offences, may not be suitable to decide who is sent to carry a child or vulnerable adult alone.

How does the DBS Update Service work for drivers?

The Update Service keeps a standard or enhanced certificate current, so the council doesn't need a new check every time. It costs £15 a year, and the driver must join within 30 days of the certificate being issued.

With the driver's consent, the council can then check online whether anything new has come up. The Statutory Standards say the DBS searches weekly for new conviction and barring information, and every 9 months for police intelligence. They ask councils to make every licensed driver keep a continuous subscription so the council can check every 6 months, and to check drivers who don't subscribe every 6 months anyway.

Councils have adopted this. Bristol requires drivers to hold a subscription at all times while licensed, and TfL won't grant a licence until the driver has registered. If a status check shows new information, the Standards say the old certificate shouldn't be relied on and a new one should be requested.

The Update Service doesn't cover basic checks. For those, GOV.UK points people to a DBS online account instead, so for office staff you'll be looking at a fresh basic certificate each time.

What about staff who've lived abroad, or minibus drivers?

A DBS check can't see records held overseas. The Statutory Standards ask councils to request a certificate of good character, or overseas criminal records, from anyone who has spent 3 or more continuous months outside the UK as an adult. TfL asks private hire licence applicants for a certificate of good conduct if they've lived abroad for 3 months or more at a time in the last 10 years.

Minibus work is different again. A driver with a PCV licence driving a bus-type vehicle isn't required to have an enhanced DBS check, so the Standards say you should only send one on a private hire booking with the informed consent of the person booking. For work with children, drivers can be in regulated activity, and the Standards point out that it's an offence knowingly to let a barred person work in regulated activity. Our guide to starting a school transport business covers the extra checks, and safeguarding for taxi firms covers the training that goes with them.