Last updated: 10 September 2026
Change, 10 September 2026 — a DBS check is now optional. You do not need a Basic DBS check to work through BOB O JOB. Everything below still applies to anyone who chooses to get one, or who already has one: how we read a disclosure, the individual assessment, and your right to appeal are all unchanged. Nothing here is withdrawn — it simply now describes a decision you choose to put in front of us.
BOB O JOB LTD (company no. 17231669) · Contact: privacy@bob-o-job.com
Our commitment
Having a criminal record does not stop you working through BOB O JOB. Most convictions make no difference at all to what you can do here.
We will not pretend there is no line, because there is one. If you give us a certificate and it shows something, it goes to our internal review, and we would rather you knew the possible outcomes before you decide whether to show us anything:
- You pass. We record that you are DBS-checked, and you can be matched to customers who have asked for one.
- You do not pass, and you carry on. You keep your account, your approval and every kind of work on the platform — you simply are not matched to customers who specifically asked for a DBS-checked Jobber.
- In the most serious cases, we may end your account. This is rare, and it is the only circumstance in which what you disclose costs you your place here.
We ask about criminal records because we send people into customers' homes, and we owe those customers a reasonable check. We do not ask in order to filter out anyone who has ever been convicted of anything. We treat everyone fairly, whatever their background, and we judge applications on whether someone is right for the work.
We follow DBS fair-recruitment good practice, and the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 governs what a check can show us in the first place.
What we ask for
Nothing, unless you choose to give it. A Basic DBS check is optional: you do not need one to be approved or to take work, and we will not ask you to get one.
If you would like one, or already hold one, you apply for it yourself at gov.uk/request-copy-criminal-record. You pay the fee (£21.50 at the time of writing — GOV.UK shows the current price) and show us the original certificate — at your interview if you have one by then, or whenever it arrives.
The fee is yours to pay, and we do not reimburse it. That is true however your application ends, and whatever your certificate shows. We would rather tell you that plainly, before you apply, than let you find out afterwards. Applications made before 26 August 2026 were made under an earlier policy that did reimburse the fee, and we are honouring that for everyone already in the process on that date.
The certificate belongs to you either way, stays valid for use elsewhere, and is yours to show to another organisation. We ask for a fresh one every 24 months, and each one is a new application you make and pay for.
A Basic check shows unspent convictions and conditional cautions only. Anything spent under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act will not appear, and we will not ask you about it.
We do not ask for Standard or Enhanced checks. Those higher-level checks are restricted to roles that are legally eligible for them, and our ordinary Jobber roles are not eligible.
The certificate is sent to you, not to us. You choose to show it to us.
What happens if something shows up
Nothing is automatic. A conviction on your certificate is not a rejection. It goes to our internal review, and for most people the question we are answering is narrow — whether we record you as having passed the check, which decides only whether you are matched to customers who specifically asked for a DBS-checked Jobber. Only in the most serious cases does your place on the platform come into it at all.
We look at:
- whether it has any bearing on the work — going into people's homes, handling their property, working unsupervised
- how serious it was
- how long ago it happened, and how old you were at the time
- whether it was a one-off or part of a pattern
- what has changed since
- anything you want to tell us about the circumstances
We will talk to you before we decide. If your certificate shows something, we will ask you about it and give you a fair chance to explain. We will not reach a view on a disclosure without that conversation.
A decision that you have not passed affects one thing only: you will not be matched to customers who asked for a DBS-checked Jobber. You keep your account, your approval and every other job on the platform. A decision to end an account is a separate and much rarer one — and you have the same right to explain beforehand, to written reasons, and to appeal, either way.
How we handle the information
We record the certificate number, its date, and our decision. We do not write down the details of what a certificate disclosed in your main record.
We take a photograph of the certificate only so a second reviewer can verify the issue date entered into our system. We delete that image as soon as the secondary check is complete and, in all cases, no later than six months. That date sets when your next check is due, which is why a second person checks it against the document. The record of the check itself is kept for a limited period after that — six months after your engagement ends, or six months from the decision if we turn your application down.
Where something is disclosed and we have to weigh it, we write down our reasoning and keep it separately from your main record. That note is what shows a disclosure was considered and that you were approved anyway, so it protects you as much as it protects us.
Only the staff who approve jobbers can see any of this, and every access is logged. We never tell customers about the contents of a check — they see only that you are an approved jobber.
Full detail is in our Privacy Policy.
If you think we got it wrong
Email privacy@bob-o-job.com. Tell us what happened and why you think the decision was unfair.
We will reply within 14 days. We will look at the decision again from the beginning rather than simply confirming it, and we will give you our reasons in writing.
Wherever someone else on our team is authorised to look at it, your appeal is reviewed by a person who was not involved in the original decision. We are small, so that is not always possible — and where it is not, we will tell you that plainly rather than imply an independence we do not have, and we will set out our reasoning in full so you can judge it yourself. If your appeal turns on our judgement about something your certificate disclosed, rather than on a factual correction, and no one internal can review it independently, we will arrange for someone outside the business to do so.
If your certificate itself is wrong, you can dispute it directly with DBS — that is between you and them, and we will hold your application open while it is resolved.
If you are unhappy with how we handled your personal data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.