Southport Conservative councillors' move for DBS checks condemned as 'misleading gimmick'

A motion from Sefton Conservatives to last week's Council meeting (29th September), which was overwhelmingly defeated in a vote, has been described as a misleading gimmick by Birkdale Lib Dem councillor Simon Shaw.

Councillor Shaw spoke in the debate and highlighted that the Conservatives were calling for councillors to obtain a Basic DBS check, rather than the much more thorough Enhanced DBS check, that he and most of his Lib Dem colleagues have already.

The Conservative motion called for councillors to apply for a Basic DBS Check and pay for it themselves. DBS checks can be Basic, Standard or Enhanced and the only one that individuals, as opposed to employers or approved voluntary organisations, can apply for is the Basic DBS.

"The problem is that the Basic DBS is of very limited scope, as you might expect from the word basic.  It merely reports any convictions that are 'unspent' under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act," said Councillor Shaw.

"When people talk about being DBS checked they are really talking about the Enhanced DBS check, which applies in schools, in the care sector, youth organisations and so on."

"As a school governor at Farnborough Road Junior and Infants Schools for over 30 years I have had an Enhanced DBS, or CRB before it, continuously since they were introduced in 2002."

"The majority of Lib Dem councillors are, or have recently been, school governors and accordingly have been Enhanced DBS checked.  In contrast, having checked the Council's Register of Interests, it appears that none of the Conservative councillors are school governors. Accordingly, so as far as I know, not a single Sefton Conservative councillor has an Enhanced DBS check."

In his speech to the Council meeting Councillor Shaw referred to a Conservative councillor and former mayor in Devon who was jailed for 21 years in 2021 following conviction for child sex offences between 1990 and 2021.

"The problem is that the convicted former councillor John Humphreys could have applied for a Basic DBS a month or even a week before his trial ended and it would have come back completely blank."

"This was a highly misleading gimmick on the part of Sefton Conservative councillors, which would not have achieved the 'protection' that the Enhanced DBS gives.  The fact that they rushed out a press release immediately after the Council meeting tells us what this was really about."

Details on the Devon case are at: https://sidmouth.nub.news/news/local-news/sidmouth-district-council-to-debate-dbs-checks-for-councillors-after-former-exmouth-mayor-jailed