Insurance and DBS checks, and what they really mean

Public liability: not required, and still the one to ask for

No law requires a cleaning business to hold public liability insurance. Nearly all of them do, typically for £1 million to £5 million, because it covers the thing that actually goes wrong: damage to a customer's property or injury to somebody in it.

Ask for the certificate rather than the claim. It is one page, it names the insurer, the limit and the expiry date, and any insured business can send it in a minute. A business that cannot is telling you something.

Employer's liability: compulsory, and the one people forget

The Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 requires any business with employees to hold employer's liability cover of at least £5 million. It is not optional and the penalties are substantial.

This is the distinction that matters when you are choosing between a sole trader and a company. A sole trader working alone needs no employer's liability cover and it is correct that they do not have it. A company sending a team of four does need it, and the same certificate request applies.

What a DBS check can and cannot say

There are three levels, and which one a cleaner can even apply for is fixed by law rather than by choice.

A basic DBS check shows unspent convictions, can be applied for by anybody about themselves through gov.uk, and costs £18 in England and Wales. Disclosure Scotland and AccessNI run the equivalents.

Standard and enhanced checks show more, including spent convictions and, for enhanced, police intelligence and the barred lists. They can only be requested for roles the law makes eligible, and ordinary domestic cleaning is not one of them. So a cleaning company advertising enhanced DBS checks for its domestic cleaners is either describing staff who also work in an eligible setting such as a school or a care home, or is describing something it cannot lawfully obtain. It is worth asking which.

What to actually check, in order

The certificate of public liability insurance, with the expiry date on it. Employer's liability too, if anybody other than the owner will be in your house.

Then how the business vets its people, in its own words. Basic DBS, references taken up, right to work checked, and how long the person has worked there are all real answers. A badge on a website is not.

Then who holds the key and what happens when they leave. A company with more than a handful of staff should be able to answer that without thinking about it.