NHS DBS Check Cost 2026/27
Last updated: 11 November 2026 · Figures verified against the Disclosure and Barring Service fee schedule in force from 5 October 2026.
The DBS fees in full, from 5 October 2026
The Disclosure and Barring Service cut its fees on 5 October 2026, and the figures below are the reduced fees in force from that date. They are the DBS's own fees only. An umbrella body or a processing provider can add its own administration charge on top, so the amount you are asked for can be higher than the figures here. Always check whether the figure you are quoted is the DBS fee alone or the fee plus an administration charge.
| Check | What it shows | Fee from 5 Oct 2026 | Fee to 4 Oct 2026 | Saving |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | Unspent convictions and conditional cautions | £20.00 | £21.50 | £1.50 (7.0%) |
| Standard | Spent and unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands and final warnings | £20.00 | £21.50 | £1.50 (7.0%) |
| Enhanced | Everything in standard, plus relevant information held by local police | £41.00 | £49.50 | £8.50 (17.2%) |
| Enhanced with barred list | Everything in enhanced, plus a check of the barred lists for children and/or vulnerable adults | £41.00 | £49.50 | £8.50 (17.2%) |
The table also shows what each fee was before the cut, because payslips and offer letters from before October 2026 still quote the old figures, and the old figures still appear in older guides. The previous fees, £21.50, £21.50, £49.50 and £16, applied from 2 December 2024 to 4 October 2026. The cut is biggest where the fee was biggest: the enhanced check fell by £8.50, which is 17.2%, while the basic and standard checks fell by £1.50, which is 7.0%, and the Update Service fell by £1.00, which is 6.3%. One detail catches people out: an enhanced check with a barred list check costs exactly the same as an enhanced check without one, £41. The barred list check carries no separate DBS fee. If a quote charges extra for the barred list element, that extra is an administration charge from the body processing the application, not a DBS fee.
The four levels, explained
There are four things you can be asked to pay for, and they are not interchangeable. Which one applies to you is decided by the role, not by you, and the level decides the fee, so the first question is always which level the post needs.
Basic check, £20. A basic check shows unspent convictions and conditional cautions. It is the only level an individual can apply for on their own behalf, and it is the level used for roles that do not involve regulated work with children or vulnerable adults. Few clinical NHS roles use it, because most NHS work is regulated activity. It is the level most likely to apply to a back-office post with no patient contact, and it is the only level that is not free for volunteers.
Standard check, £20. A standard check shows spent and unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands and final warnings. It applies to roles listed in the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act exceptions, which include some NHS posts that are not regulated activity but still carry a higher level of trust, such as certain finance or estates roles. It costs the same as a basic check, £20, which surprises people who assume a deeper check must cost more. The price is set by the DBS, not by how much the check reveals.
Enhanced check, £41. An enhanced check shows everything a standard check shows, plus any information held by local police that is considered relevant to the role applied for. It is the level for roles that involve regulated activity with children or vulnerable adults, which is most patient-facing NHS work. Nurses, healthcare assistants, porters, receptionists in clinical areas, therapists, pharmacists and doctors are all normally checked at this level, although the trust decides the level for each individual post. The fee is £41 whether or not a barred list check is included.
Enhanced check with a barred list check, £41. This is the enhanced check plus a check of the barred lists, the lists of people barred from working with children and/or vulnerable adults. It applies where the role involves regulated activity, which is the legal test, and it is the level most NHS clinical posts require. The barred list element adds no DBS fee, so the total stays at £41. If your offer letter says enhanced with barred list, the fee is the same as for an enhanced check alone, and any higher figure in the letter is an administration charge from the processing body.
Two things follow from that list. First, never pay for a higher level than the role needs, because the fee doubles from £20 to £41 for no benefit if the post only requires a standard check. Second, never accept a basic check for a clinical role: if the post involves regulated activity, a basic certificate does not satisfy the requirement, and the trust will order an enhanced check anyway, which means paying twice. If you are unsure which level your post needs, ask the trust's recruitment team before you apply, not after you have paid.
Who pays for an NHS DBS check?
GOV.UK does not set a rule on who pays the fee for a paid role. That is for the employer to decide. In practice, NHS employers normally arrange and pay for the checks their roles legally require, because the check is a condition of the post and the trust is the body that needs it. That is the position for substantive staff, and it is the position for most bank staff engaged directly by a trust. The check is usually ordered through the trust's own registered body, and the fee is settled between the trust and the DBS without the money passing through the member of staff at all.
There are three situations where the money can fall on you. The first is agency work: agency workers are usually checked through their agency or an umbrella body, and the cost can fall on the worker or be passed on through the agency, so check the agency's terms before you accept. The second is a role where the trust asks you to arrange the check yourself, which happens with some bank and sessional posts; in that case ask whether the trust reimburses the fee, and get the answer in writing before you pay. The third is an umbrella body's administration charge, which can be added on top of the DBS fee even when the trust pays the fee itself, and which varies by provider. If a figure you are quoted is higher than the DBS fee for your level, ask for the breakdown, because the difference is the administration charge.
If you do pay the fee yourself, check your first payslip for any deduction, and keep the receipt. The fee is a cost of taking up the post, and it is worth knowing whether it was deducted from your pay or paid directly. Our payslip guide sets out how to read every line on an NHS payslip, and our newly qualified nurse pay guide lists the other first-month costs that arrive before the first pay, including NMC fees and uniform costs.
Volunteers: what is free and what is not
Volunteers are treated differently from paid staff, and the difference is worth the full fee for most people who give their time to an NHS trust. Standard, enhanced and enhanced-with-barred-list checks are free of the DBS fee for eligible volunteers. The Update Service is free for volunteers too. A basic check is not free for volunteers; the £20 fee applies to everyone, volunteer or not.
Two cautions belong with that. First, free means free of the DBS fee, not free of every cost. An umbrella body or registered body can still charge its own administration fee even when the DBS fee is waived, so a volunteer check can still carry a cost, just not a DBS fee. Ask the body processing the application what its administration charge is before you apply. Second, eligibility matters: the free check applies to volunteers in eligible positions, which means volunteering for an organisation that carries out the check as part of its safeguarding arrangements. A volunteer who is asked to pay for a standard or enhanced check should ask why, because the DBS fee for that check is nil.
The Update Service: £15 a year, and when it pays
The DBS Update Service is a subscription that lets an employer check online whether your certificate is still current, instead of ordering a fresh check each time you move. It costs £15 a year from 5 October 2026, down from £16, and it is free for volunteers. It covers standard and enhanced certificates only, not basic checks. You must subscribe within 30 days of the certificate being issued; miss that window and you cannot add an existing certificate later, so the decision has to be made at the time the certificate arrives.
Whether the subscription saves money depends entirely on how often you move. One enhanced check costs £41, and one year of the subscription costs £15, so the service pays for itself if you need a new check more often than once every two years and nine months. The table below works the two honest cases through, and the arithmetic is the whole argument.
| Scenario | Total cost | Working |
|---|---|---|
| One enhanced check, no subscription | £41.00 | £41.00 |
| One enhanced check plus one year of Update Service | £56.00 | £41.00 + £15.00 |
| Two enhanced checks in one year, no subscription | £82.00 | 2 x £41.00 |
| Two enhanced checks in one year, with Update Service | £56.00 | £41.00 + £15.00 |
| Five enhanced checks over five years, no subscription | £205.00 | 5 x £41.00 |
| Five enhanced checks over five years, with Update Service | £116.00 | £41.00 + 5 x £15.00 |
| Two enhanced checks over five years, no subscription | £82.00 | 2 x £41.00 |
| Two enhanced checks over five years, with Update Service | £116.00 | £41.00 + 5 x £15.00 |
Read the two cases together and the rule is plain. Move trusts every year and five years of checks cost £205 without the service against £116 with it, a saving of £89. Move once in five years and the same five years cost £82 without the service against £116 with it, which means the subscription costs £34 more than paying per check. Bank and agency staff, who change engager often, are the people the service is built for. Substantive staff who stay in one trust for years are the people it costs money. The subscription is not a saving in itself; it is a saving only for people who move.
There is one more condition, and it is the one that catches people out. The service only works where the new role needs the same level and type of check as the certificate you hold. A standard certificate cannot be carried into a role that needs an enhanced check, and a certificate for the children's workforce cannot be carried into a role that needs the adults' barred list. A basic certificate can never be carried across at all, because the Update Service does not cover basic checks. Before you rely on a subscription to avoid a fresh check, confirm with the new employer that your certificate is at the right level for the new post.
Worked examples: what £41 means in hours of pay
A fee of £41 is easier to judge when it is set against what an hour of NHS work pays. The table below turns the enhanced fee into hours of pay at three entry points, using the hourly rates verified in the NHS pay data file.
| Band | Hourly rate 2026/27 | Enhanced check (£41) in hours |
|---|---|---|
| Band 2 | £12.91 an hour | 3.18 hours |
| Band 3 | £13.16 an hour | 3.12 hours |
| Band 5 entry | £16.38 an hour | 2.50 hours |
At Band 2, on £12.91 an hour, an enhanced check costs 3.18 hours of pay, which is about three hours and eleven minutes. At Band 3, on £13.16 an hour, it costs 3.12 hours. At Band 5 entry, on £16.38 an hour, it costs 2.50 hours, exactly two and a half hours. Set against a month of Band 2 pay, £2,106 a month, the £41 fee is 1.95% of one month's gross pay, or about one fiftieth of a month. The fee is small against a salary, which is why most trusts absorb it without a second thought, and it is large enough to matter if you are paying it yourself on a first-month budget that already carries NMC fees and uniform costs. Our healthcare assistant salary guide sets out the Band 2 and Band 3 pay behind those hourly rates, and our Band 5 pay guide sets out the Band 5 figures.
The other comparison that matters is with the old fees. Under the fees that applied to 4 October 2026, five enhanced checks cost £247.50. Under the reduced fees they cost £205, a saving of £42.50 over five years for someone who moves every year. The cut is a real saving for frequent movers, and it is the reason any guide quoting £49.50 for an enhanced check is out of date. If a quote still shows £49.50, it is using the pre-October 2026 fee, and you should ask for the figure to be corrected before you pay.
What a DBS check does not do
A DBS certificate is a snapshot of your record on the day it was issued, not a licence and not a permanent clearance. It does not prove you are suitable for a role on its own; the trust still carries out its own recruitment checks, including references and occupational health clearance, and the certificate is one part of that process. It does not expire on a fixed date, but employers re-check when you move roles, because a certificate issued years ago says nothing about what has happened since. The Update Service exists precisely because a certificate goes stale, and its status check is what keeps an old certificate useful.
The check also does not travel with you automatically. Without an Update Service subscription, each new employer orders its own check, even if you hold a certificate from a previous trust at the same level. That is not the new employer being difficult; it is how the system works, because the certificate belongs to the application that produced it. If you move often, subscribe within the 30-day window. If you stay put, do not subscribe, because the subscription only pays for people who move.
How to check your own position
- Find out which level your post needs. Ask the trust's recruitment team whether the role is basic, standard, enhanced, or enhanced with a barred list check. The level decides the fee: £20, £20, £41 or £41.
- Ask who pays. There is no GOV.UK rule that says who pays for a paid role, so ask the trust whether it arranges and pays for the check, or whether you pay and claim it back. Get the answer in writing before you pay.
- Ask for the breakdown. If the figure you are quoted is higher than the DBS fee for your level, the difference is an administration charge from the umbrella body or processing provider. Ask what it covers.
- Check the date on any quoted fee. Fees changed on 5 October 2026. A quote showing £49.50 for an enhanced check, £21.50 for a standard or basic check, or £16 for the Update Service is using the old fees.
- Decide on the Update Service within 30 days. You must subscribe within 30 days of the certificate being issued. Work out whether you move often enough for it to pay: it saves money only if you need a new check more often than once every two years and nine months.
- Volunteers: ask why if you are charged. Standard and enhanced checks are free of the DBS fee for eligible volunteers, and so is the Update Service. A basic check still costs £20, and an administration charge can still apply.
- Check your first payslip. If the trust deducts the fee from your pay, it will show on the payslip. Our payslip guide explains how to read it.
Frequently asked questions
Do NHS staff pay for their DBS check?
Usually not. There is no GOV.UK rule that says who pays the fee for a paid role; that is for the employer to decide. In practice NHS employers normally arrange and pay for the checks their roles legally require, because the check is a condition of the post. If you are asked to pay, ask the trust whether it reimburses the fee, and check your first payslip for any deduction. The fee itself is £41 for an enhanced check, £20 for a standard or basic check, and £15 a year for the Update Service, from 5 October 2026.
How much is an enhanced DBS check in 2026?
An enhanced DBS check costs £41 from 5 October 2026, down from £49.50, a cut of £8.50. An enhanced check with a barred list check costs the same £41, because the barred list check carries no separate DBS fee. A standard check and a basic check both cost £20, down from £21.50. The DBS Update Service costs £15 a year, down from £16. These are the DBS's own fees only; an umbrella body or processing provider can add its own administration charge on top.
What is the difference between a standard and an enhanced DBS check?
A standard check shows spent and unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands and final warnings. An enhanced check shows everything a standard check shows, plus any information held by local police that is considered relevant to the role, plus a check of the barred lists where the role involves regulated activity with children or vulnerable adults. Most patient-facing NHS roles are checked at enhanced level with a barred list check, because the work involves regulated activity. The trust decides the level for each post, and the level decides the fee: £20 for standard, £41 for enhanced.
Is a DBS check free for NHS volunteers?
Standard, enhanced and enhanced-with-barred-list checks are free of the DBS fee for eligible volunteers, and the Update Service is free for volunteers too. A basic check is not free for volunteers; the £20 fee applies to everyone. An umbrella body or registered body can still charge its own administration fee even when the DBS fee is waived, so a volunteer check can still carry a cost, just not a DBS fee.
What is the DBS Update Service and is it worth £15 a year?
The Update Service lets an employer check online whether your certificate is still current, instead of ordering a fresh check each time you move. It costs £15 a year and covers standard and enhanced certificates only, not basic checks. You must subscribe within 30 days of the certificate being issued. Whether it saves money depends on how often you move: one enhanced check costs £41, so the service pays for itself if you need a new check more often than once every two years and nine months. Move trusts every year and five years of checks cost £205 without it against £116 with it. Move once in five years and it costs £34 more than paying per check.
Can I use one DBS certificate for two NHS jobs?
Only through the Update Service, and only where the new role needs the same level and type of check. Without a subscription, each employer orders its own check, because a certificate is a snapshot of your record on the day it was issued. With a subscription, the new employer runs a status check against your existing certificate instead of ordering a fresh one, provided the certificate is for the same workforce and the same level of check. A basic certificate can never be carried across this way, because the Update Service does not cover basic checks.
How long does a DBS check take for NHS staff?
There is no fixed published timescale, and this guide does not quote one. Processing time varies with the level of check, how many police forces need to be consulted, and whether the application is complete and correct. Enhanced checks take longer than basic or standard checks because they involve local police information. Your employer tracks the application and will tell you when the certificate is issued; if your start date depends on it, ask the trust's recruitment team what happens if the check is still in progress on your start date, because some trusts let you start under supervision and some do not.
Do bank and agency NHS staff pay for their own DBS check?
It depends on who engages you. A trust that engages you directly for a bank shift normally arranges the check in the same way as for substantive staff. Agency workers are usually checked through their agency or an umbrella body, and the cost can fall on the worker or be passed on through the agency, so check the agency's terms before you accept. The Update Service is the practical answer for bank and agency staff, because one £15-a-year subscription lets each new engager run a status check instead of ordering a fresh £41 check, provided the certificate is at the right level for the role.
Pay progression
See also newly qualified nurse pay for the other first-month costs that arrive before your first pay, healthcare assistant salary for the Band 2 and Band 3 pay behind the hourly figures on this page, how to read your NHS payslip if a fee is deducted from your pay, and bank vs agency pay for how bank and agency engagements handle checks.
Sources and independence
Source: Disclosure and Barring Service (GOV.UK).
This is an independent guide and is not affiliated with the NHS or the Disclosure and Barring Service. DBS fees are set by the Disclosure and Barring Service and can change; always check the current fee on GOV.UK before paying. Who pays the fee for a paid role is decided by the employer, so confirm the position for your own post with the trust before relying on the figures here. Always check your ESR record for your actual entitlement.