<Tr> <Th> Website </Th> <Td> www.gov.uk/dbs </Td> </Tr> <P> The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) is a non-departmental public body of the Home Office of the United Kingdom . The DBS enables organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors to make safer recruitment decisions by identifying candidates who may be unsuitable for certain work, especially that involving children or vulnerable adults, and provides wider access to criminal record information through its disclosure service for England and Wales . </P> <P> The DBS was formed in 2012 by merging the functions of the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 . DBS started operating on 1 December 2012 . It operates from Liverpool and Darlington . Its equivalent agencies are Disclosure Scotland in Scotland and Access Northern Ireland in Northern Ireland . </P> <P> It is a legal requirement in the UK for regulated activity employers to refer safeguarding concerns to the DBS . It is an offence for any person who has been barred by the DBS to work or apply to work with the group (children or adults) from which they are barred . It is also an offence for an employer to knowingly employ a barred person in regulated activity with the group from which they are barred . </P>

When was the disclosure and barring service introduced