ASK MAT – DBS checks on my SM team: basic, enhanced, or standard?

The ASK MAT question: DBS checks on my SM team: basic, enhanced, or standard? Our compliance manual says:

• Screening of Key Persons and Principal Persons
• The Supervisory Bodies Law requires key persons and principal persons to be always fit and proper.
• This section sets out the full procedure for conducting, assessing, and documenting the required criminal record and fitness and propriety screening.
• "The Firm may, and for JFSC purposes must, require full disclosure of all convictions, including spent ones, and must obtain the enhanced DBS check (or foreign equivalent) prescribed by COP96."
• But that doesn't tally with what COP96 says.
• WHICH IS RIGHT?

Mat says:

• Good catch, and it's a useful example of how imprecise rule-drafting creates confusion even when everyone's reading the same document in good faith.
• There are two things to untangle here:
• Who COP96 applies to, and
• What tier of check it requires.

First: scope. COP96 doesn't apply to your whole "SM team."

• "Senior management function" (SMF)   as designated under Article 1(1) of the Commission Law
• Is a related but distinct concept from "key persons" and "principal persons" (KP/PP) under the Handbook.
• Every key person will generally also be a Category 1 senior management function:
• The JFSC's SMF notice says explicitly that a person with management responsibility for any aspect of the AML/CFT/CPF compliance/risk function who simultaneously holds a key person role falls into Category 1.
• But SMF reaches further than KP/PP.
• Category 1 also catches non-KP staff managing an aspect of that function below key-person level.
• Category 2 catches people below board level who report to the board or a principal person and can exert significant influence over controls, even without a KP/PP title; and
• Category 3 is a catch-all for anyone personally performing a duty the Money Laundering Order or an AML/CFT/CPF Code requires "senior management" to perform.
• SMF exists
• To determine who can be personally fined under Article 21A for consent, connivance, or neglect in a contravention; it isn't a DBS screening trigger.
• COP96 only reaches KPs and PPs.
• So, confirming who on your senior management team is a key person or principal person
• Tells you who COP96's DBS duty reaches.
• It doesn't tell you who's exposed to a personal Article 21A fine, which is a wider group.
• Both are worth mapping, but they answer different questions.

Second tier. For those who are KPs/PPs, COP96 doesn't require an enhanced check.

• But it doesn't require a literal "basic" check either.
• The manual's instinct   that something more than a bare Basic check is needed   was right.
• The specific answer it landed on (Enhanced) wasn't.

Working through it:

• COP96 says:
• "Supervised persons must obtain a basic DBS check (or foreign equivalent) for key persons and principal persons."
• But paragraph 40 of the same section is explicit:
• "All references in this section to criminal record certificates mean a DBS check (or foreign equivalent)"   and
• The Handbook glossary[*] defines that term as
• "a certificate containing details of spent and unspent convictions provided by the DBS or an equivalent body in a foreign jurisdiction."

Conclusion

• So, within the same section of the Handbook,
• The label ("basic") and
• The defined content requirement (spent + unspent) doesn’t match.
• The content requirement is what governs.

Why this matters:

• Under standard UK DBS terminology, a Basic check shows unspent convictions only; spent convictions aren't disclosed.
• It's a Standard check that adds spent-conviction visibility. COP96's use of "basic" isn't invoking the UK DBS service's own tier definition; it's just loose drafting.
• The Handbook's own content requirement is what controls.

Practically, this means:

• To comply with COP96 as the Handbook has defined it, we should be requesting what DBS calls a Standard check where the role is eligible for one, not a literal UK "Basic" check, which won't deliver spent-conviction data at all.
• Enhanced, meanwhile, adds barred-list checks and police intelligence. There's no reference to that anywhere in COP95–98, its guidance notes, or the glossary.

One thing still to confirm before we finalize this:

• Standard-tier UK DBS checks are only available for roles in scope of the relevant Exceptions legislation, typically accessed via a Registered/Umbrella Body.
• The Handbook defines the certificate by content, not by reference to that UK eligibility gate, so we need to confirm PP/KP roles are in scope for a Standard check in practice before telling firms to request one as a matter of course.

A related small print point:

• The Handbook glossary defines "spent convictions" by reference to the Rehabilitation of Offenders (Jersey) Law 2001.
• A UK DBS Standard check, by contrast, classifies spent/unspent under the UK's own Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.
• The two regimes are similar but not identical,
• So, a UK certificate is a close proxy for the Handbook's requirement rather than a perfect match.
• Unlikely to matter in most cases, but worth knowing it's there.

Also worth flagging while we're in this section:

• COP97 requires a criminal record certificate covering not just the individual's current jurisdiction of residence, but every jurisdiction they've lived or worked in for six months or more within the last 10 years, and it must be dated within six months of the application.
• For internationally mobile senior managers (KPs/PPs), this is often the more operationally demanding requirement worth building into the process alongside the tier question.

So: no Enhanced check needed for KPs/PPs — but not a bare Basic check either. Standard is the right tier, subject to eligibility being confirmed.

• To correct YOUR MANUAL,
• Remove the "for JFSC purposes must... enhanced... prescribed by COP96" line, which isn't supported by COP96 as written.
• I suggest the following replacement text:
• Limit the DBS requirement to key persons and principal persons rather than the SM team as a whole,
• Require a Standard DBS check (or foreign equivalent providing spent + unspent conviction data) for the roles listed in […], covering all relevant jurisdictions per COP97.

Close and One for the drawer:

• As an end note, for all your other employees, THE ONES WHO AREN'T KPS/PPS, you should also consider the JFSC guidance on screening, which may still call for a DBS Basic check.
• That's a different rule, a different tier, and a different population.
• Worth its own blog. Stay tuned.

END

*A citation note on the JFSC glossary:

• It contains two separate entries: "DBS" (which simply identifies the Disclosure and Barring Service as the UK Government's agency for criminal record disclosures) and "DBS check or equivalent" (which defines the certificate's required content as spent and unspent convictions).
• This piece relies on the latter, operative definition; readers checking the glossary for themselves should look up "DBS check or equivalent" specifically, not just "DBS".

Questions on this? Reach out to MATHEW@COMSUREGROUP.COM.

Sources

1. JFSC AML/CFT/CPF Handbook   version effective 30 June 2026 (uploaded by reader/firm; not separately hyperlinked here). Live/current version maintained at:

https://www.jerseyfsc.org/industry/financial-crime/amlcftcpf-handbooks/amlcftcpf-handbook/

2. JFSC   Updated AML/CFT/CPF Handbook and upcoming changes (news notice covering the 30 June 2026 amendments, including COP96 wording change)

https://www.jerseyfsc.org/news-and-events/updated-amlcftcpf-handbook-and-upcoming-changes

3. JFSC   Notice designating "senior management functions" (issued 12 January 2023, effective 13 March 2023), issued under Article 1(1) of the Financial Services Commission (Jersey) Law 1998

https://www.jerseyfsc.org/media/6333/notice-issued-under-article-1-1-of-the-financial-services-commission-jersey-law-1998-designating-senior-management-functions.pdf

4. JFSC   News announcement of the SMF notice's publication

https://www.jerseyfsc.org/news-and-events/notice-designating-senior-management-functions-published/

5. UK Government   Basic DBS check terms and conditions (confirms Basic discloses unspent convictions only)

https://www.apply-basic-criminal-record-check.service.gov.uk/terms-and-conditions?lang=en

6. Appleby   Determination of the "Senior Management Function" in Jersey (background/commentary on the SMF regime)

https://www.applebyglobal.com/publications/determination-of-senior-management-function-jersey/

Note: the analysis of COP95–98, paragraph 40, and the Handbook glossary in this piece was verified directly against the uploaded 30 June 2026 Handbook PDF, Section 22 Glossary PDF, and the SMF notice PDF, not from the secondary web sources above, which are provided for reader reference and further background only.