[2025] UKUT 118 (AAC)

Section 2 of the Act requires the DBS to maintain the adults’ barred list. By virtue of section 2, Schedule 3 to the act applies for the purpose of determining whether an individual is included in the lists. Section 3 provides that a person is barred from regulated activity relating to vulnerable adults if the person is included in the adults’ barred list. Regulated activity is determined in accordance with section 5 of, and Schedule 4 to, the 2006 Act.

Schedule 3 to the Act provides for inclusion by reference to “relevant conduct” by the person included in the lists. The appellant must have been engaged in relevant conduct and the regulated activity test must be met. That is, that the person is or has been, or might in future be, engaged in regulated activity relating to, in this case, vulnerable adults (paragraph 9(1)(a)(ii) of Schedule 3). Relevant conduct is defined in paragraph 10(1)(a) of Schedule 3 to the Act as conduct which endangers or is likely to endanger a vulnerable adult. Other elements of the definition are not relevant here. Endangers is defined in paragraph 10(2) of Schedule 3 as harming, causing to be harmed, putting at risk of harm, attempting to harm or inciting another to harm a vulnerable adult.

Section 4 of the Act governs appeals. It provides that an appeal may be made to the Upper Tribunal against a DBS decision only on the grounds that the DBS has made a mistake on any point of law or in any finding of fact which the DBS has made and on which the decision was based. Subsection (3) of section 4 provides that, for the purposes of subsection the decision whether or not it is appropriate for an individual to be included in a barred list is not a question of law or fact.