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It’s hardly surprising that there’s a lot of confusion about checks performed by the Police into your background. For a start, the body which we all knew as the Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) changed a few years ago into another body called the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

Thousands of British people move overseas every year to work, either temporarily or permanently. Young people taking a gap year either before or after Uni, people who are relocating to another country with an existing employer, or those breaking away from the UK completely to build a new life elsewhere. Anyone who has made the move to a new country will know just how much paperwork there is to get through when you’re trying to organise the practicalities of renting a property or opening a bank account.

It sounds like the perfect part time job for a music or sports fan – working as a steward at a local venue and getting to see concerts, plays and football matches free of charge. While it’s true that working as a steward might allow you to get into events and be paid for being there, it’s often hard work and there are certain requirements to get the job in the first place.

The DBS system hit the headlines again at the end of May 2018 when a report issued by the government’s Public Accounts Committee revealed that an upgrade to modernise the way in which the Disclosure and Barring Service works is running four years late and has exceeded its budget by £229 million.

School’s out for summer and thousands of University students and school leavers around the country are scouring the internet for jobs which will see them through the summer and help them save some cash for the next academic year. Retail, restaurant and bar work are traditional choices for students trying to earn some cash, but zero contracts and short-term contracts are becoming more popular in other industries too.

If you’re trying to negotiate the minefield of getting a new job, it can often seem like there are endless hoops to jump through. One of these hoops is getting your DBS checks done, or PVG in Scotland or AccessNI in Northern Ireland. But what happens if you don’t want to have your employer digging around in your criminal record?

Applying for jobs can be an expensive business. You need smart clothes for interview, transport to get you there and might have to take unpaid time off from your current job too. Once you’ve got the job, it’s usually safe to assume that the balance tips in the other direction and you start to be better off with your new salary and benefits package.

You’ve probably heard of DBS checks, and know that this is a type of police check carried out to make sure that people who have a serious criminal past can’t get jobs working with children or vulnerable adults. DBS stands for Disclosure and Barring Service, and although the “disclosure” part of the title is about the police record searches, what is less understood is the “barring” part of the title.

If you’re working in an occupation which requires you to be checked by the Police before starting, this system will be explained to you when you apply for the job. This checking process used to be called a CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) check and is now DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service).

If you’ve ever locked yourself out of your home in the middle of the night, you’ll know what a valuable service is provided by a locksmith. They turn up at all hours, and can either replace the locks on your property or help you break in. Setting yourself up as a locksmith can be lucrative, especially if you’re prepared to offer a 24 hour service to your customers.