Extend Disclosure Regime Overseas
IICSA · The Report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse · Issued 20 October 2022 · Addressed to: UK Government
Government responseUK Government: Accepted in part (May 2023)
DeliveryHome Office says in progress (Jan 2026)UK Government says in progress (Apr 2025)
Recommendation, verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation, K.4
The Inquiry recommends (as originally stated in its Children Outside the United Kingdom Phase 2 Investigation Report, dated January 2020) that the UK government introduces legislation permitting the Disclosure and Barring Service to provide enhanced certificates with barred list checks to citizens and residents of England and Wales applying for: work or volunteering with UK-based organisations, where the recruitment decision is taken outside the UK; or work or volunteering with organisations based outside the UK, in each case where the work or volunteering would be a regulated activity if in England and Wales.
IICSA, The Report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse · 20 Oct 2022 Source PDF →
Published evidence summary
AI-generated evidence summary
In January 2026, Home Office minister Jess Phillips reported that legislation brought into force in December 2025 enabled ACRO Criminal Records Office to include an individual's barred list status on its International Child Protection Certificate for people seeking to work with children overseas (Jess Phillips, Jan 2026). HM Government had previously stated in April 2025 that it would enable those making decisions overseas to access Disclosure and Barring Service barred list data by 2026 (Home Office, Apr 2025). In May 2023, it accepted the recommendation in principle, committing to consider strengthening the disclosure regime in light of the Bailey Review (Home Office response, May 2023).
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026.
Government response
●UK Government · Accepted in part · 22 May 2023
We accept the need to review whether disclosure arrangements can be further strengthened for those working with children overseas, and we will consider the scope of further strengthening the regime, taking into account the findings of the Bailey Review of the Disclosure and Barring Regime published in April 2023.
Extract from: Government response to the final report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse
Delivery
●Home Office says in progress · 21 Jan 2026
On 18 December 2025, legislation was also brought into force which enabled ACRO Criminal Records Office to include an individual’s barred list status on its International Child Protection Certificate (ICPC) which is available to those who are looking to work with children overseas. By ensuring that overseas employers can also learn an individual’s barred list status, this will reduce the risk of those barred from working with children in the UK being able to do so overseas.
●UK Government says in progress · 9 Apr 2025
By 2026, working with ACRO Criminal Record Office and DBS, we will enable those making decisions overseas to have access to DBS barred list data.
From: Tackling child sexual abuse: progress update (accessible version)
How this page is built
The recommendation and the government responses are verbatim from primary documents. Delivery statements and other bodies' findings are shown in their own words, each with its source. The summary is written by this site and labelled as such. The Index does not paraphrase sources or characterise intent; it records what has been published.