Two councillors at Lancashire County Council have flags raised by DBS checks

Councillors do not need to make their past dealings with police forces public

Hello and welcome to The Lancashire Lead.

Two councillors at Lancashire County Council had ‘flags’ returned when carrying out their enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks at the authority expects them to undertake when elected.

A week ago, ten of the 84 councillors had not yet completed their checks of criminal records, though this number has been reduced to four since we began asking questions.

There is no detail on which two councillors had the flags returned or why the police is holding data on the individuals, but the smaller party leaders at County Hall all responded to questions to say it was not a member from their party.

Having convictions, or having previous dealings with police, does not preclude a person from being a councillor and there is nothing that says an elected individual has to make the public aware of why that might be.

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Two councillors at Lancashire County Council have flags raised by DBS checks

County Hall in Lancashire

By Luke Beardsworth

Two sitting county councillors in Lancashire had flags returned when they carried out enhanced DBS checks after being elected, The Lancashire Lead can reveal.

A policy introduced in 2024 means county councillors at Lancashire County Council are encouraged to undertake an enhanced DBS check once per term.

An enhanced DBS check will reveal a person’s full criminal history - including both spent and unspent convictions, cautions, warnings, and reprimands.

The policy is in place at Lancashire County Council with the intention of ensuring that no elected individual can work in a role that puts them in contact with vulnerable adults or children.

The identity of the two individuals cannot be revealed but the Conservative, Labour, Lib Dem and Our West Lancashire leaders all responded to our questions to state that it was not an elected member from their group.

The leaders of Reform UK and Progressive Lancashire have at the time of publication not responded to our question.

The Lancashire Lead also learned that, as of 9 March 2026 - almost a full year after the 2025 elections - there were 10 councillors of the 84 who had not completed their DBS checks.

Cllr Mark Clifford, leader of the Labour group at County Hall, raised the issue during Thursday’s (12 March) meeting of full council after he was made aware of figures by our query to him.

He made the point when discussing a council motion - moved by Reform UK’s Cllr Luke Parker - that will ask the chief executive to write to Shabana Mahmood to condemn Zack Polanski’s policy on drugs, set out its opposition to any decriminalisation of drugs and request local authorities be consulted on any changes.

Cllr Clifford said: “Ten people out of our 84 councillors have not done their DBS checks. That’s outrageous. It is way after the election. If you’ve got something to hide, let the public know.

“And if it’s anything to do with peddling drugs or anything like that, it’s time to think about your position. But please, just get them done.”

That number of councillors who haven’t undertaken the DBS checks has been reduced to four since we asked a number of questions of Lancashire County Council this week.