DBS Digital Identity Verification With (Enhanced, Standard, or Basic) DBS HI-ID
Employers and recruiters already understand the importance of DBS checks. What’s changing is how identity is verified before those checks begin, and how critical that first step is to safer, compliant recruitment.
With updated DBS identity checking guidance now in effect, organisations are being encouraged to move away from manual, inconsistent processes and towards secure, digital identity verification. This shift isn’t just about speed. It’s about reducing risk, strengthening safeguarding, and ensuring compliance is built into recruitment from the very start.
This article explores what’s changed, why it matters, and how employers can adopt best-practice identity verification without adding complexity or administrative burden.
What Is Required for a DBS Check?
Since April 2025, DBS identity checking guidance has reinforced a move towards secure digital verification technology. While DBS checks themselves haven’t changed, expectations around how identity is verified beforehand have.
Many organisations still rely on:
- Manual oversight
- Paper-based ID checks
- Inconsistent processes across teams or locations
These approaches introduce unnecessary risk. Inaccurate identity verification can lead to:
- Delayed hiring
- Incomplete DBS results
- Safeguarding gaps
- Poor candidate experience
The updated DBS identity checking guidance makes one thing crystal clear: correct identity verification is the foundation of safer recruitment. If a candidate isn’t verified properly at the start, even the most thorough DBS check will be compromised.
Key DBS Identity Checking Updates to Note
DBS digital identity verification plays a critical role in ensuring candidates are accurately identified before DBS applications are submitted, helping employers reduce risks and strengthen compliance from the very start of recruitment.
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Identity verification is critical
Accurate ID is essential for reliable DBS searches across police records and barred lists.
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Digital-first approach
Employers are strongly encouraged to use digital identity verification where candidates hold a passport.
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Mandatory Right to Work checks
RTW checks must be completed alongside DBS checks to remain compliant.
View (Standard and Enhanced) DBS Identity Checking Guidelines Here
View (Basic) DBS Identity Checking Guidelines Here
How to Compliantly Verify a Candidate’s Identity
DBS digital identity verification helps eliminate inconsistencies that often arise when identity checks are completed manually across different teams or locations.
To access DBS (criminal record checking) services, employers are required to follow identity checking aligned with the Good practice Guide (GPG) 45, produced by the Cabinet Office.
GPG45 sets out how organisations should verify identity before granting access to government services. As identity fraud continues to rise in the UK, following this framework protects employers, applicants, and the public.
DBS Digital Identity Verification under GPG45 consists of five core steps:
- Collect evidence of the claimed identity
- Check that the evidence is genuine and valid
- Confirm the identity has existed over time
- Assess the risk of identity fraud
- Verify the identity belongs to the person claiming it
DBS Digital Identity Verification Confidence Levels
DBS digital identity verification plays a vital role in safer recruitment, particularly across high-risk roles, by providing a level of accuracy and assurances that manual ID verification cannot consistently achieve.
Employers can reach a level of confidence by meeting an identity profile. The DBS uses a confidence-based model for identity verification:
- Low confidence
- Medium confidence
- High confidence
- Very high confidence
To submit DBS applications, employers must achieve at least medium confidence. However, for organisations working with children, vulnerable adults, or high-risk roles, the DBS recommends achieving higher confidence wherever possible.
Higher confidence reduces the risk of:
- Synthetic identities
- Impersonation
- Use of insider knowledge
- Biometric mismatches
- Fraudulent or altered documents
How to Achieve High Confidence in Someone’s Identity
Some types of evidence are ‘stronger’ than others, which means they will be harder to forge or counterfeit, increasing overall ID verification confidence. Each document is scored based on its security features, the personal data it contains, and the robustness of the process used to issue it.
Confidence levels are assessed against:
- Document strength
- Validity
- Activity history
- Identity fraud risk
- Verification
These combine to form DBS-recognised confidence scores. Higher confidence means lower fraud risk and greater assurance that candidates are genuine.
Why Manual ID Checks Create Risk
Manual identity checking introduces inconsistency and human error into a process that must be precise. This is why the DBS now strongly encourages employers to adopt digital Identity Verification Technology (IDVT).
Manual processes are:
- Time-consuming
- Difficult to scale
- Prone to error
- Dependent on individual judgement
Most importantly, they increase risk. Inaccurate identity verification can result in incomplete DBS information, directly impacting safeguarding outcomes.
A centralised, digital approach allows employers to maintain control while reducing risk, improving consistency, and removing unnecessary administrative effort.
Real World Consequences of Inconsistent Screening
When identity information is inaccurate or inconsistently verified, DBS results may be incomplete or misleading. Over time manual processes create variation across teams, sites, or recruiters, which directly affect safeguarding outcomes.
This is why many organisations are now reviewing their screening and vetting policies and reducing reliance on manual routes.
We regularly share real-world background checking cases that highlight the impact of weak or inconsistent processes, including:
- Shocking Ofsted report exposes major safety failures at UK nursery (Link)
- Paedophile head teacher case highlights need for comprehensive background checks in education (Link)
- 14 year old girl, died after agency worker with false ID left her (Link)
- Teacher given six-1/2-year jail sentence for having sex with two schoolboys (Link)
- A London primary school teacher’s dark past in human trafficking went unnoticed (Link)
The common thread is rarely a lack of checks, it’s how those checks were carried out. Relying on “this is how we’ve always done it” can create hidden operational costs, from restarting recruitment to managing reputational damage.
Why This Matters and Why You Can Trust Our Perspective
Our role at EBC Global is to support employers in carrying out safer recruitment correctly, consistently, and compliantly.
We’re a DBS Responsible Organisation (RO) and Registered DBS Umbrella Body (RB), audited annually by the Disclosure and Barring Service for the past seven years. We are also an approved Digital Identity Service (DVS / IDVT) provider, accredited under the Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework (DIATF).
We are founding members of the first Association of RecTech Providers (ARTP) and members of the Better Hiring Institute (BHI), working alongside government and industry to improve safeguarding, modernise criminal record checking, and shape best practice.
This experience informs how we design technology and why compliance, consistency, and control remain central to everything we build.
Introducing (Enhanced, Standard, or Basic) DBS HI-ID
In response to evolving DBS guidance and the need for stronger, more consistent identity verification, we developed (Enhanced, Standard, or Basic) DBS HI-ID. An automated single-document journey supporting all three levels of DBS applications.
These solutions combine digital identity verification, Right to Work checks, and DBS submissions into a one automated, compliant workflow.
Candidates receive a branded link where they can:
- Provide consent
- Capture a live selfie
- Upload their identity document (typically a biometric passport)
Once candidate actions are completed, the system automatically runs a series of combined checks designed achieve high confidence in the candidate’s identity, reducing the risk of ID fraud.
The Only Fully Automated DBS Digital Identity Verification Journey
(Enhanced, Standard, or Basic) DBS HI-ID automate five key checks:
- Identity (ID) document verification
- Right To Work confirmation
- Address and mortality verification
- International sanctions and PEPs (Enhanced and Standard only)
- Automatic completion, countersignature and submission of DBS applications
By removing manual handling, this DBS digital identity verification process ensures every DBS submission follows the same compliant workflow, every time.
Fast turnaround times are a result of doing things correctly from the start, not cutting corners. Most DBS results are returned within days, with a significant proportion returned within less than 24 hours.
The Benefits of (Enhanced, Standard, or Basic) DBS HI-ID
By completing DBS digital identity verification through (Enhanced, Standard, or Basic) DBS HI-ID, employers support safer recruitment without increasing workloads:
- Simple user-friendly candidate experience
- High-confidence identity and Right to Work verification
- Protects against document and identity fraud
- Fully digital and paperless processing
- Remote completion, anytime and anywhere
- Alignment with current DBS identity checking guidance
- Automated end-to-end workflows that reduce manual error
- Powered by Home Office–approved IDVT solutions
Building Compliance Into Recruitment, Not Around It
The Disclosure and Barring Service strongly encourage employers to lean into DBS digital identity verification, as part of their wider strategy to safeguard vulnerable groups.
(Enhanced, Standard, or Basic) DBS HI-ID help organisations move beyond manual workarounds and embed compliance directly into recruitment processes.
They support:
- Full compliance with DBS ID Checking Guidelines (Enhanced, Standard and Basic)
- Direct submission through a DBS Responsible Organisation and Registered Umbrella Body
- Integrated Right to Work compliance
- Reduced risk and stronger safeguarding outcomes
- A future-proof, digital approach to identity verification
For recruiters and employers alike, this isn’t about doing more checks. It’s about doing them better, improving accuracy, reducing risk, and giving teams time back.
