Police in England and Wales will gain a specific legal power to share Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) information with organisations based outside the United Kingdom that are assessing candidates for roles working with children. The Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 (Prescribed Purposes) Regulations 2025 take effect on 18 December 2025.
The statutory instrument, made on 25 November and laid before Parliament on 27 November 2025, is issued under sections 50A(1)(d), 60(1) and 61(1) of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006. It extends to England and Wales and was signed for the Home Office by Jess Phillips, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State.
Regulation 2 prescribes a new purpose under section 50A(1)(d), allowing a chief officer of police to disclose information provided by the DBS-explicitly including whether an individual appears on the children’s barred lists-to assist a person located outside the UK in assessing suitability for work with children where the appointment decision is made overseas.
This adds to the existing purposes for which the DBS may share information with the police, which already include crime prevention, detection and investigation, the apprehension and prosecution of offenders, and appointments made under a chief officer’s authority. The new prescribed purpose is confined to children’s roles.
The instrument confers a permissive power rather than a duty: it enables disclosure by a chief officer but does not require it. The text does not set out an application route, evidential thresholds or service standards; operational arrangements will sit within policing and DBS practice rather than in the Regulations themselves.
For overseas employers and prospective employers, the practical effect is that police in England and Wales may disclose DBS‑supplied safeguarding information, including confirmation of whether an individual appears on the children’s barred lists, to support decisions about whether that individual should work with children. This provision is limited to assessments where the decision‑making sits outside the UK.
For UK‑based recruitment activity run on behalf of overseas decision‑makers, the key test in the Regulations is the location of the appointment decision. Where that decision is made abroad, enquiries may be directed to the relevant chief officer of police to consider disclosure under the prescribed purpose.
For policing, the scope is tightly framed: only information provided by the DBS may be disclosed for this purpose, and only to assist an assessment about work with children. Given the sensitivity of children’s barred lists information, forces should maintain clear processes for verifying requests and recording what is released.
The Home Office note accompanying the instrument confirms that a full impact assessment has not been produced because no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen. The Regulations prescribe purpose only and do not alter the underlying barred lists or the definition of regulated activity.
Section 50A of the 2006 Act, inserted by the Policing and Crime Act 2009 and amended by the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, provides the legal gateway for the DBS to share information with chief officers for prescribed purposes. This instrument adds an overseas suitability assessment to that list.
The Regulations apply in England and Wales and do not change disclosure arrangements elsewhere in the UK. Domestic DBS checking for UK‑based appointments continues unchanged.
With commencement scheduled for 18 December 2025, HR, compliance and safeguarding teams have around three weeks to brief staff, set internal points of contact and prepare to handle requests from overseas employers routed via chief officers of police.