Representations to the Independent Monitor
If the DBS has refused your dispute, it can then be reviewed by the Independent Monitor, and further representations can be made at that stage. The Independent Monitor can uphold the police disclosure, change it, or remove it altogether, producing a clean certificate.
You will have 28 days to make representations
Once your case reaches the Independent Monitor, you are invited to submit further representations and they must arrive within 28 days. This is also the last stage at which anything can realistically be changed.
Your questions, answered
The questions people ask me most in this situation. If yours is not here, call and ask.
The Independent Monitor is a person appointed by the Home Secretary to review decisions to include information on enhanced DBS certificates, to make sure that the information is necessary and has not been unfairly disclosed.
Yes. If you raised a dispute about disclosure on your enhanced certificate and it was unsuccessful, your case goes to the Independent Monitor for review, provided you indicated on the AF15 dispute form that the information was not relevant to the role you applied for (section D2), or that it should not have been disclosed at all (section D3), or both.
The Independent Monitor's office asks the police for information about the case, and contacts you to offer the chance to make further representations. Those must be provided within 28 days. Your case is then placed before the Independent Monitor for review.
The Independent Monitor reviews the information disclosed on your enhanced DBS certificate and decides whether the police were right to disclose it to the DBS for inclusion under Other Relevant Information, and whether the strict statutory criteria were followed and correctly applied. The Independent Monitor can uphold the disclosure, change it, or remove it.
If the Independent Monitor upholds the decision to disclose information on your enhanced DBS certificate, the decision is final and there is no further right of appeal. The only remaining option is judicial review, which is a formal court process, takes a considerable amount of time, and can expose you to significant costs. That is precisely why the representations at this stage have to be right the first time.
You will speak to a qualified solicitor with extensive experience of preparing detailed written representations to the Independent Monitor, and a proven record of securing decisions to delete all disclosure from the Other Relevant Information section, resulting in a new clean certificate being issued. With your reputation and career at stake, and no quick and easy appeal after this, it is worth having it prepared properly.
What I do for you
- I prepare the representations inside the 28 day window, addressing the statutory criteria the police had to satisfy.
- Where the disclosure is removed, a new certificate is issued with the Other Relevant Information section clear.
- Everything is agreed on a fixed fee before any work starts, and there is no VAT to add.
148 cases won since 2021
Every outcome is published, with the profession involved and the allegation that was made. Here are some of the most recent.
| Date | Profession | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| May 2026 | Teaching Assistant | Appeal to DBS and successful representations to Independent Monitor resulting in removal of disclosure to produce a clear DBS certificate |
| March 2026 | Teaching Assistant | Appeal to DBS and successful representations to Independent Monitor resulting in removal of disclosure to produce a clear DBS certificate |
| March 2026 | Worker within an educational setting | Appeal to DBS and successful representations to Independent Monitor resulting in removal of disclosure to produce a clear DBS certificate |
| July 2025 | Student Nurse | Successful representations to Independent Monitor resulting in removal of disclosure to produce a clear DBS certificate |
| March 2025 | Teacher | Successful representations to Independent Monitor resulting in removal of disclosure to produce a clear DBS certificate |
| August 2026 | Night Care Assistant | Successful representations to prevent inclusion on the Adults' Barred List following dismissal for allegations of sleeping on duty and fabricating records |
Related situations
My DBS certificate shows something it shouldn't
Enhanced certificates can disclose information that never led to a charge. Inaccurate or disproportionate disclosure can be disputed and removed.
The police have written proposing disclosure to the DBS
The police are proposing to put information on your certificate. Stopping it here also stops the DBS from ever seeing it.
I need advice on DBS filtering rules
Whether an old caution or conviction is filtered from your certificate depends on rules that changed in 2020 and remain widely misunderstood.
I've received a Minded to Bar letter from the DBS
The DBS has made a preliminary decision to include you on a barred list. Your written representations are usually your one real chance to change that.
Talk to me before you reply to anything
The first conversation is free and it costs you nothing to find out where you stand. Whatever you have been sent, I have almost certainly seen it before.